Trivia Woes

Well, more like Trivia name woes. I tend to keep loosing in Trivia on Tuesday nights and somehow, my team name falls into that. My first week doing it, I was Romulan Ale...this is an illegal drink in the Federation of the Star Trek...but they somehow still get away with serving this blue colored beverage anyway. (By the way, do I need to mention that I am a huge nerd. If you've been reading this blog, you would think I was at least something like that). Anyway, as each week went, my total would go up some...but that was like 14 to 16. This started the second or third Tuesday of January at the Roving Imp, by the way.
Finally, on February 9th, I changed my name to Werewolf of London. One reason for this name is because I'm a huge fan of Warren Zevon (which you would also know about me if you've read my blogs) and I was totally psyched about the new Wolfman movie coming out that Friday on February 12th. I instantly doubled my score from the previous weeks...like adding 14 to 16 and somewhere around that answer was my score.
I kept the Werewolf theme the following week but that week, we had enough people to double up and I was teamed with Nifer. We combined her team name (Mother F**kin' Lyers) with my team name (Werewolf of London) to become The Mother F**kin' Werewolves of London. My score went up. But as it turned out, my strongest thing I brought to the table was stratagy.
The following week, I was teamed with Nifer again but we became the Lisa Turtle's Magical Mystery Experience. Combined, we made a score to about 51 or so. I can't really remember. I just know it's higher than I've ever gotten on my own.
The following week, we only had 4 people so we went back to 1 person teams and I went back to the Werewolf of London concept but combined it with LOL to make it WoL. I can't remember how I did. But it was okay...I do know that I did better that time on my own than the previous times I was on my own.
I guess I wasn't in my game tonight. I couldn't even get a team name. I started out with Squishy Pants for a team name. By the way, there were just 3 or us: Chris, Nifer, and myself. I have no idea where Squishy Pants came from and now that I think of it, I think it was a suggestion I had gave for a super hero name in the improv game of Superheros. But I don't remember. I finally came up with The Big Mac Avenger. I really hate McDonald's so I thought it would be a name to strike fear. Well, I still didn't get beyond something like 25 points or so. Oh well, there's always next week.

By the way, this was my first time working with links.

Notes from 2nd City Almanac

Okay, well, I borrowed the 2nd City Almanac of Improvisation from Nifer and took some notes from it that I thought might come in handy to me currently or in the future...or that I simply understood without thinking too much about it. Here are the notes that I took from it:

• Asking questions, when you're not playing the game of "Questions Only," is like asking for permission for your idea or saying "I have an idea. Why don't you come up with it?" In stead of asking a question of your scene partner about something, endow them with something...A gift. (as I wrote this, I was thinking of the line from Raising Arazona when the guy says to Nicolas Cage, "Son, you've got a panty on your head. That's not necessarily the same, but it's what kept coming to mind).
• Live in the now. The future and past are going to get you thinking about "Plot" -I did it "Because of the diamond." - Tomorrow, I'll go on this great adventure. Talk about the present - where you are now and who you are with...how you feel about them especially.
• Don't say no. "Hey, you want to go on this great adventure with me that is a lot more interesting than your current situation?" "No." "Okay. Well, see ya." In stead, Yes (and...) it. "Yes, I'd love to go. And then...
• Everything each charicter does or says should affect the other characters on stage.
• Don't ignore you're environment.
• Focus is one of the keys. If focus is lacking, the scene will fall apart.
• There are no mistakes or accidents unless you make one obvious.
• To improvise is to expand and highten the discoveries in the moment.
• Add to the imidiate last thing. Don't put something to the side to wedge your idea in.
• You don't have to "try to be funny" Laughter will happen just by your being human; humanity is funny enough. Trying to be funny will just be annoying.
• Listen VERY HARD to everything outside yourself...This includes minute details.
• Play to the top of your intelligence. A redneck is as smart as you. A nural surgine is as limited as you.
• Try not to invent but discover.
• People watch. The way people act in real life is real.
• Play against the cliches. They will turn your charicter more into a caricature.
• A space can be anything - until something is placed there.
• Show - Don't tell. Trust the audience will see it.
• Trust the moment and the fellow actors.
• When your scene partner does or says something, it's a gift; not a challenge.
• Accept their reality. Be ready to abandon yours.
• Rather than focusing your energy on what you are going to say, focus on the charicter's point of view or the group's activity.
• One can do anything on stage. It's believable if done honestly.
• Listen to your partners. Don't fish for jokes.
• The funny will find you. Don't worry about finding it. All you have to do is play the scene.
• Become a part of the whole. Be eachother's stage manager. Help and be helped (and P.S. don't be afraid to edit).
• To find an end to the scene, look to the beginning.
• Assume the audience is intelligent enough to think and feel for themselves. Don't hit them over the head to get the point across.
• Explore a beat to it's fullest, then let it go.
• On stage, the thinking should be in an ecological fashion; nothing should go to waste.
• Be aware of patterns and play with them.
• Learn to discover human nature - Not what you want the scene to be about.
• Don't be affraid to follow the fear. It's more interesting to the audience to follow than deny the fear.
• State the obvious...especially if everyone is too emparrased to mention. Follow up-Be willing to embarras yourself.
• Cut before the climax.
• Do not attempt to parody anything unless you know what, where, how, why, who, and which you are parodying.
• Treat the absured seriously.
• Don't complicate the complications.
• Do the weird, not the normal.
• Make accidents work.
• Plan less, discover more.
• Be careful not to win the game by going off the board.
• If you follow a fantasy long enough, it becomes real.
• A dream found is a dream lost.
• Charicteristics help a charicter express basic emotional patterns.
• Every line should advance the scene forward.
• When playing a child, play as smart as an adult. When playing an adult, try not to loose the childlike wonder at the world.

Okay, well, those are the notes I jotted down. I did it in a notebook and it took 3 sheets.

Epic Fail!

So, I was going to type out the notes that I took from the book Nifer loaned me on the Second City Improvasational Almanac. But instead, I got a little distracted by the fact that my car got "raped" in Bonner last night. And by "raped," I mean that some (a few) a-hole(s) went around Bonner Springs and did damage like what happened to my car which was my back window got smashed in. I didn't even know about it until the police officer who came to investigate came looking for the owner of the car. I didn't even know there was a police officer looking at my car until Nifer came back to the Imp from the bar next door and told me that there was a cop who was scoping, or something, my car. When I went outside, I didn't know what to expect. The first thought was that there was something wrong with the way that I was parked...it's parralel parking in Bonner Springs for any good spots and, to be honest, I never really learned how to parralel park until I started going to Bonner Springs on a regular basis. So that was the first thought in my head. Secound thought was that a lot of cars that parralel park outside of the Roving Imp usually get ticketed or something simply because it's next door to Kobi's...the bar...and cars get profiled (which I meant to say when I said ticketed). Good news is that there was nothing that I was at fault for. The bad news was what you can see in the picture. Someone took something (There was no evidence of a rock, no evidence of getting shot with bullets because none of that was found in the car) and smashed in the back window. By the way, nothing was taken out of the car. The back seat was still a mess...now plus the window mess. Nothing was taken out of the front seats...not even a Warren Zevon CD that was up there...or any medicine bottles that were up there...which were empty but I sometimes take with me to keep medicine in but have no place to put after I use them. So I just left them in my car.

Anyway, the police officer told me that they had got a lot of calls involving this...My car was 1 of 4 or something like that. This was late last night...around 11:50pm...at least when the cop was there. I don't know when it happened. It would have been sometime between 7pm and 11:50pm. The picture was taken from my phone around 12:01pm which was after the cop left.

This was a Friday night which means I wouldn't be able to get to the insurance office until Monday. But I found out this morning after waking up (which I was fortunately able to get some sleep) that I could file a claim on line. The only problem was that I didn't know who was at fault. So when I said I wasn't at fault, I was asked for the name of the person and I had to say Don't Know. When asked for any extra information, I had to say Back Window smashed in Bonner. That sounds kind of ignorant but that was all I know. The police officer didn't even give me any information, he just took information down. Fortunately, I do still have ride plans to get to Bonner...at least today.

Basics...maybe

Okay, I'm going to attempt to get back to basics. I didn't update much last month. But I will update more during the month of March. First off, let me just say that I'm about to finish a book. It will be the first book that I started and finish during the year 2010. It's THE SECOND CITY ALMANAC OF IMPROVISATION. Nifer loaned it to me back in January. It's only about 175 +or- pages. But I'm really slow at reading. But I've got like 7 pages left. Once I do that, I'm going to write a blog on some notes I chose to take over it. Also, I've started reading the Shirlock Holmes novel THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES.
Good news, I looked at the book and I spelled "Baskervilles" correctly. I should get a freakin' cookie or something.
Also last month, I saw the movie The Wolf Man. I want to write a review of it but I'm not really that great at writing reviews. Put it like this. I really enjoied it...except for some flying guts and heads...which I guess they had to put in for modern audiences.
Anyway, I've got 2 videos from Biblioclast shows. One is a quick scene from June that used the magnetic poetry board. The other is the first 2 scenes of the Duck Soup one from last month. I'm going to attempt to transcribe them. The reason I chose to do this was based upon the fact that, having taken Playwriting I, I have an idea on how to write up a script...even if it's not my own original. Also, for the credit. Also, and this is really the most important reason for choosing to do so, I really want to.
Also, I just wanted to say that I saw an opera last month at the University of Kansas. The name of the show escaped me but Jenifer Harmon was the stage manager. Chris Hurt and I headed out there to see it and we were going to meet up with 2 others who wound up not being able to get it because it was sold out. But the opera was actually enjoiable. I decided that if I had to based my opinion of operas solely off of that, I wouldn't be opposed to seeing one again. It was a little hard to follow, though, even though it was in English. Vocal quality and music out did one another and sometimes, the music won out over the voices. Still, I was able to get the basic concept of what was going on.

This seems to be a decent update for now.

Warren Zevon Collector's Edition CD 2

Here is the video to Warren Zevon's sophomore album WARREN ZEVON...only it's the 2nd CD in the Collector's Edition. Here is a brief sample of the album:

WHA---!!!

Wow! I don't know what's wrong with me. But it's been a while since I posted. This is not because of lack of anything interesting to say or a lack of interest. It's mostly been a lack of time.
I hope to remedy this in the days to come...

By the way, I've got my own gmail now!

It's February now

It's the first day of February. I had 2 shows this last weekend. One was awesome. One I truely feel that I sucked at. The one on Saturday had a lack of focus that affected everyone. By the second half, it became clear to John that the audience needed more short form and less long form. Still, the energy was really weird. I can only remember 3 things that happened. 1) We did Da-Do-Run-Run with the name Gina. I rhymed saying that with her Calada, she likes a pina. 2) In the game of Statistics, we had dog breeds. My comment was 50% of the breed you get when you cross a bull dog and a Shiztu can't be named in a 7:00 show. 3) I ate Nifer. This was in the long form of Hyperlinks. Something is said, an audience member shouts out CLICK (hopefully, we hear them), and we do a new scene. The new scene involved getting closer. Nifer and I were first on stage and, in an attempt to get closer, she decided I had to swallow her whole. After a few minutes, I threw her back up along with John and Julie.
Anyway, long story short, I felt great about Friday's show and I just feel sucky about Saturday's show. I wasn't feeling too great about my performance in class on Saturday either. I don't know why.
But anyway, Nifer's class on Sunday went pretty okay. There were just 3 of us in class and we practiced games we'll be doing in the show on Feb. 20...which is 3 Saturdays away. We started out doing an animal spine thing for scenes. We were supposed to addopt the physical attributes of an animal (that Nifer mentioned) but be human. It took me 3 times to get it right with what we were supposed to do. I was a gold fish, a beaver, and finally an elephant. I want to use this concept some more but just to color the physicality of the charicter.
Anyway, soon, I want to mention things that happened in January. Maybe tomorrow.