The Aviator

The Aviator

I've just returned from seeing The Aviator. I'd heard it's good, and wanted to see it before I go on the road and am out of the loop for three months. (By the way, Star Wars III is FINALLY going to make an appearance. Call me crazy, but if there have been three Harry Potters in just over three years, and ALL THREE LOTR movies out in the same amount of time -- starting production from scratch, just like Lucas did in the original Star Wars trilogy, what the heck is taking him so long? Other than the obvious. Marketing. Oh, and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is going to come out in March. Don't Panic.)

Aviator was really good. I think. Scorsese leaves me less with the feeling of "woah!" and more with "ohhh. I think I liked that." It was a beautiful movie. Beautiful. The recreation of the 1920's to the late 1940's was amazing. Cate Blanchett, of course, was brilliant. But I've liked her in everything she's done. And I didn't know Leonardo could act. I liked his character in Titanic. Marvin's Room was good. Catch Me If You Can was not the same as the book, but I thought he branched out of former roles on that one. He did a great job in this film playing someone with OCD. Similar to Jack Nicholson, but Howard Hughes' condition was worse. Do all Scorsese flicks lack an ending?

The whole movie, had it completely sucked after the first ten minutes, which it didn't, would have been worth it for the 'filming the dogfight' sequence. And Cate Blanchett playing Katherine Hepburn.

Favorite line: "You taught me to fly. I can take the wheel if I have to."

To the tune of ouch.

"How much is wow?"
"Somewhere between ouch and poiiiing."
"Wow!"

So I got my poor car fixed today. To the tune of $580. Oh yes. Thanks to Mary Hunt and my contingency fund, I have it. But it's still a lot for a computer chip and somethingg to do with my transmission (Or trannie, as the guys call it. What is that?).

But they washed my baby. Well, most of the way. Somehow they missed vacuuming my backseat. You would think for that much money they might remember it. But I didn't want to sit around while they fixed it, and they did give me free hot chocolate while I waited. And the outside it ready for me to turtlewax before I put her under a cover and let her sit for three months.

One of those days

Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day

You ever have one of those days when nothing goes right? That would be today. It's my least favorite part of tour this week -- picking up the pieces, and waiting until it's time to clean up to go. Busywork. Shopping. Oh the shopping.

Today our goal was to refold the programs -- they came back backwards from the printers. 6,000 of them. In the middle of that I went to the garage to try caulking our wheels into the kitchen carts. They have metal wheels, but plastic casings that break the first time we roll them over tough terrain. Not good when you have two hundred dishes on a cart. But like I know where to find caulking. And neither did anyone else.

After lunch we were back to fold programs while running through our lines for practice. The multitasking wasn't bad for me, but that doesn't stand for everyone. It was my idea to try and do both at once, and it wasn't a complete disaster once we got into the swing of things.

Then Torrie and I went shopping for odds and ends and lunches for our first drive day. Tupperware for the coffee cups at Fred Meyer. Then to Winco for groceries. They don't take a card. We have the company one, and no pin number. Four calls later we're finally through the line and out of there. Costco for cleaning supplies and baby wipes. They don't take Visa. Their ATM is broken. So I'm back to the bank to withdrawal more.

And for the clincher, somewhere along the way, my computer in my car decides to go out. Not completely, but my car won't switch gears, the odometer is kaput, and the gas gauge fluctuates. Fluids are fine. But the RPMs are rather high. Austen and Jonathan drove it around for a bit and decided it's a computer thing not (thank God) a transmission thing. Guess where I'm headed tomorrow...

Now I'm back up at the office taking a quick break from signing the last of our server thank you notes. On the plus side, we're watching Sword and the Stone.

Work Projects

We're doing work projects today, will blog this evening. Haven't fallen off the face of the planet!

Dress Rehearsal minus 1

Dress Rehearsal Minus Two

Today we drove to Lake Oswego for another round of early morning mock shows. I remember most of the monologues I'd forgotten yesterday, except one where I was so busy worrying about the lines I took my shoes off a scene early, and that threw me for a loop, so I forgot it again.

And in one scene, Austen delivered the pick up line, and I completely blanked and jumped to the end of the scene. He blinked, delivered the line after the one I threw. I jumped back to the beginning of the dialogue, he followed. I went to the middle, and then the end, and he covered my ...self every time. Good thing, too.

On a positive note, I did remember all my Balangao.

Another day, another show

Another day, Another show.

Our first mock show in a new venue. The kitchen crew only did a little set up, since we can't cook until we have an audience. I got ahold of sysco and our food for the next four shows is ordered. Having never done that before, I thought it went very smoothly. And then Austen and I were sent to forage for dinner (which was really lunch, since we'd synchronized our watched to "real show" time at 7am.

We went to two different supermarkets that should have had a deli, and neither did, so knowing that the entire team would hate us if we brought sandwiches (which we get PLENTY of on tour), and not having the authority to make our own decision on food, we went to McDonalds in the middle of their lunch rush and ordered 24 double cheeseburgers and 8 biggie fries. That went over well.

It was our first show with new and improved sound cues. Most were good. A few were terrible. And the spooky Ichaw music, after a few bars, turned into nostalgic mood music. There's another that's very Princess Bride, and a third that reminded me a lot of Indiana Jones, but I can't remember why. And we have a cool "hiking through the jungle" conga beat.

The helicopter crash scene is improving. I'm really self-conscious about writhing around moaning. Today it was "more believable, but still needs some work. You need to be more out of it." Well, tomorrow I'll skip my morning coffee and pass out directly. I'll be up again at 5:30. I HATE mornings.

And tonight we have the evening free. I may do some mending. Several people have mending that I said I'd help with, and some black signature Wycliffe Dinner Theater polos need shortened...

Sysco

Ok, so the food order that I was stressing about adding to my job list I started doing today. And....I LIKE IT!

Today I had to count the boxes of things, figure out how much we use per show, and then when we need to order more.

It's almost as much fun as labeling my notebooks at the beginning of the semester, and might be MORE fun than planning out my four-year prospective class schedule.

heeheeheehee!

Cannon Beach

Yesterday, under the auspices of a drive test for prospective (and a co-piloting test for me, as possible lead co-pilot) we went to Cannon Beach for seafood, the then up the road a few miles to a touristy town to hang out for an hour.

The conversation on the way there in the sub was interesting, though I heard it in bits and pieces over Austen's music as Aaron and Liz argued themselves in circles. The debate was over love, and the part I picked up on was: does love grow in amount over time, or is the amount constant, but the aspect of love within that constant shifting. At least, I think that's what it was. I drew a chart.

On the way back I programmed Grusha (Our GPS system) without Julie's help with much rejoicing at the end! Hurrah! Even through she did take us the back....wards way into Milwaulkee at the end. We only nearly pulverized a small car with the sub and drama trailer as we got on a highway, only to exit .3 miles later. I bet he had to change his clothes when he got home...

Consensus

Yesterday something happened that has never happened in Wycliffe Dinner Theater history, as far as I know it.

We reached a unanimous decision in under one minute.

Quote

"Our Great Adversary is used to train us for His ultimate defeat."