095.September 28

Rainy at the U. of Nottingham.

I woke at 09:05 and ate breakfast. Then we went on a tour of the campus with a blond Paul. He pointed out nothing, and it was worthless. We ate lunch in Portland. We met a German woman named Karen who is an English major. Jana, CJ, EB, Christy, and I went on a city bus to pick up film at Jacob's. I also bought some razors, a brush, deodorant spray, and q-tips because they wouldn't give me my photos without my ticket, and I needed to have had some reason to have come all this way. We got to the meeting late, then we broke off into groups.

A woman named Heike, from Germany, asked me about "IMMER FRAGEN WARUM" on my The Voice T-shirt. We had dinner, and then went to the bar down in my dorm. We got ready for the barn dance. Wow. It was a square dance, the Virginia Reel.

1993

Madison, WI

Today, yesterday, and the day before we had load-in for BILL T. JONES dance company. I had a great time with them. I did focus for them, and now, since I had to fill in for one of our projectionists tonight, I simply go back for their load-out. I think I would have much rather been the fly-man for the show, I'm glad to have the chance to get back behind that cone of moving light. I appreciate the solitude and all the pretty light. I am really moved by images, I think if I had to live without movies I would be quite another man. Probably for the better, I hate to say. Being in a society so addicted to visual learning and entertainment, I suppose I miss out on those more basic instincts that man and woman were made for. Last night, I went to an open mic at the Union Building of this campus, the building where I work, so I end up going to lots of concerts etc here. I had my laptop along, so I brought it up and read a few poems. Actually, just one new poem, and two songs, because there was a backup jazz trio that was playing along with the spoken word poetry. The first one I read, they misunderstood my directions of how the song went. I don't blame them, I didn't get to speak with them much and figure out for myself what they should play. But then my "Kernel Knowledge" poem went over well, and I had the band play a blues riff and sang my song, "Don't Love Me Blues" and it went over really well. It was so fun. I haven't sung for a group of people for quite a while. Well, I guess I sang for my cast during rehearsals, but then they already knew the music and what to expect. This was quite exhilarating. I am in the Wisconsin Memorial Union Building currently, where I just finished work. I do all my internet probing here, because it is a place that I can use my wireless connection for free to download everything. I'm listening to Smashing Pumpkins on my headphones, just the kind of eerie stuff, not the harder stuff. I feel very good, it is a beautiful day, the lake is glowing blue, the sky is clear, the sun is bright. I'm in the Rathskellar, very much like the Buttery Bar, except older, decorated in a German fashion, more selections of tap beer, probably more expensive, higher ceilings, more light, wooden tables instead of those cast iron metal bases on the others that we stole for the fire-pit during Lysistrata. What a fun cast for that. I wish I would have kept in touch with the rest of them. I wish we all had. But everyone moves on in the directions that life finds for them. I did too, and forgot about all the fun I had as I tried to find my way, and got lost so many times along the way. I have stayed in theatre, that is one thing that can be said to be constant about my life. I wasn't very much involved in theatre before I went to Nottingham though, that is one way that my life was totally changed by my experiences there. Rocky Horror was one of the first post-high-school shows I'd ever done. It doesn't seem like it to me, but that is correct. It was a quick learning experience, but it was obviously very inspiring, because why else would I be eking out this miserable existence in theatre. This is a very busy place, people are cruising through on their way to the Union Terrace, which is along Lake Mendota, that big and beautiful body of water I was describing earlier. I have to admit that Madison is a gorgeous city, an almost ideal place for someone who likes a good balance of city and nature. Why am I moving then? Theatre is not made in the way I make it here. At least as far as I am concerned. I don't like working outside of a university setting in a city with such a large university presence on all theatre venues. It drives prices up and attendance down as far as I am concerned. The attendance of different theatres is more stratified. I don't know how else to describe it accurately, I don't think I am accurate about most of my opinions anyway, but hey, they are opinions, so what would you expect from them.

2002

We had a lovely breakfast with Broccoli Quiche, trying to use up the 40 lbs of broccoli in our fridge. Frida was making pizza for us today, and we planned to go to the old house and doing some planning and setup for installing back-splash tiles. We decided instead to stay home and paint a wall so that we could install my 20 panel painting of a tree by Jenna. We went to True Value to buy the paint, and found one that looked like egg yolk that was a mistake, so it was $15 bucks for a gallon. We got it, and started our project, but the paint would not cover very well at all. We wished we'd have used some kind of primer, but I think the paint would still have been very hard to work with. It dried like egg yolk, and hopefully, it will suit our color needs for a few years. Jacob arrived after the pizza was ready, and we had a big meal while watching the beginning of "Lord of the Rings" until Jill arrived. Then, we set up the board game "Life" and played until we all retired happily, and with similar success. Frida won, having gathered the most Life tiles of high value. Jacob and I played cribbage with my new deck from England, playing cards I'd seen in the Victoria and Albert museum competition 20 years ago.

2013

I had such a lovely ride in this morning. My new Madstad windshield is amazing, and I felt myself flying faster and faster with no stress on my head from wind buffeting me. And it is fall, with frost over everything. I made a beautiful shitake breakfast broil, and I'm feeling ready for a great day.

2022