A Day in the Life

Let's see...

Today consists of the usual:

Wake up far too early after staying up until 2:00 a.m. waiting for my husband who is MIA. (Ha ha, actually he was stuck at an accident turned block party, where no one could get through so they all hung out in the middle of the street).

Start coffee maker.

Talk to the roomie about how, now that he has a computer, he can troll the internet for cheap and easy women. Which, for the record is fine by me, since I was tired of him leaving a history trail of lesbian porn sites on our computer.

Listening to Little Big Planet music while writing a blog. This is not so unusual. Actually, I listen to a rather bizarre and eclectic mix of things, from some VERY selective current music, to electronica/trance to mostly soundtracks. Game soundtracks I particularly enjoy, but I do love my movie soundtracks too. Occasionally I like to throw in some 1930's old timey-whimey stuff. Yeah, I'm not usually asked to choose the party music, since people that see my iPod usually give me a "WTF, mate?"

Go total my car. If this totals, it will be my second car I've totaled. From accidents. Although only once was from me. This time it was all that crazy girl's fault. I suppose it's not a very interesting way to kill a car. Not like my brother Colin, who takes the Euro-van off-roading and breaks the front axel. Now that's a way to go.



Buy wine-keys for work. I get to teach a class on wine (who'd have thunk? Certainly not Teacher's Quorum President Me) to the employees, and give everyone new wine keys. I have to go pick them out from the restaurant supply, and am under strict instructions that I will not buy a bunch of random stuff for my house and charge it to Mac Grill. Damn.

Go to work. Serve people 1800 calorie bread while they talk about how they're watching their weight and will just have the salad, along with two more loaves of bread. Hmm.

Come home, have a drink and maybe get some, and go to bed. Yep, this is my exciting life.

But believe me, it's nothing compared to a day in the life of Thu Tran, host of Food Party on the Independent Film Channel. This is a show I simply cannot describe. You have to watch it for yourself and that's all I can say. Here's a delightful clip, for your mind-blowing pleasure. Oddly enough, this clip makes the show appear far more tame than it actually is. But maybe we'll ease you in, nice and slow.

Guess Who's Back?

My life has freed up, a bit. And thus, I will present, for your viewing pleasure, some images from the first production I worked on this last year. I will post the Opera images shortly after this.

Time and the Conways - A play that takes place both in 1919 and in 1938, watching the progression of a British family over these years. There are two notes I have about this show. 1) I can't stand the set color. It's a bit outta control. 2) The styles of women's dress in general during 1919 were the most bizarre collection of things you can imagine. It was right after the war, smack dab between Edwardian and the Roaring Twenties, and no definite style had been set. These dresses I designed are all accurate pieces that both fit the characters, and would fall into this year, but believe me when I tell you the range of this year is incredible. Most of my budget went to these dresses because we had to build all of them. It is not an easily stocked era. Also, many of these photos are from dress rehearsal, so the looks are not completely perfect (i.e. steamed, or wrong undergarments, etc). Still, enjoy.


1919 - Kay (the dreamer)


1919 - Joan ("such a foolish girl")


1919 - Hazel ("the pretty one")


1919 - Mrs. Conway ("I love all my children, even the silly ones")


1919 - Madge (a most unfortunate name)


1938 Hazel (in my favorite dress of the show) and Alan, the sad home-body brother.


1938 - Kay the Journalist, Robin the alcoholic schemer (in a gorgeous, actual vintage late 30's suit), and poor depressed Joan.


1938 - Madge, bitter girl's school matron


1938 - Mrs. Conway in, as the actress called it, her "Edwardian Snuggie." The script mentions that Mrs. C is still wearing Edwardian period clothes, which is funny since she's wearing clothing from an earlier period than when the play starts. Ah well. This balanced nicely with the color scheme though.

And there's some highlights for you kids. Enjoy!

The Nuns are Dead.

This means I may actually have a life again. In fact, too much of a life as school is just about over as well. I'll be graduated and... then what?

Absence makes the heart...

Dear Blog-ur-bators,

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, but suddenly the opera I'm costuming is upon me and until it relinquishes its hold like a nun to the guillotine, I won't have much to say here. I do have pictures from the last play I costumed, finally, and those will be showcased on here shortly. Be patient.

Miss and love you all, I'm sure.

Petey

Definitely NOT a Scam

I got this via Facebook back in January and have wanted to post it for a while now, to share with you how my fortune has changed. I have to point out that I'm super lucky to be the first random U.S.-born person Mr. Dabrah looked up on Facebook for this incredible offer of fraud, and I'll try not to let all that money go to my head when I'm swimming in dough. I'll still remember you, readers, all the little people out there.

Now, I know he said to keep it TOP SECRET, but nobody reads this blog anyway, and you guys who do won't tell anyone, will you? I didn't think so. This goes for you too, Chinese internet troller who likes to post links to HOT ASIAN PORN! in the comments of my blog posts. Keep it on the down-low.

And finally, now that I'm filthy rich, Obama should definitely not be in the White House. Suck it all you poor people!

January 30 at 2:43pm
Hello Peter Terry,

I am sorry to contact you unannounced through this medium. I am Mr. Benjamin T. Dabrah, a banker here in Ghana . I write you this proposal in good faith hoping that I will rely on you . In 2006, one Mr. Daniel Terry who has same surname as yours and who has your country in his file as his place of origin, made a fixed deposit for 36 calendar months, valued at $18,400,000.00 with my bank. I was his account officer before I rose to the position of Manager Director now. The maturity date for this deposit contract was 16th of January 2009. Unfortunately, while on a business trip ,he died in a deadly earthquake that occurred on May 12, 2008 in Sichuan province of China which killed at least 68,000 people.

Since the last quarter of 2009 until today,the management of Barclay's bank have been finding a means to reach him so as ascertain if he will want to roll over the Deposit or have the contract sum withdraw .Since September 2009,when I discovered that this will happen , I learn t of his death ,so I have tried to think up a procedure to preserve this fund and use the proceed for charity .

Some directors here been trying to find out from me the information about this account and the owner, but I have kept it closed because, I know that if they become aware that Mr Daniel is now late, they will corner the funds for themselves. Therefore, I am seeking your co-operation to present you as the one to benefit from his fund at his death since you have the same name, so that my bank head quarters will pay the funds to you. I have done enough inside bank arrangement and only have to put in your details into the information network in the bank computers and reflect you as his next of kin.

I am not a greedy person, so I am suggesting we share the funds equal, 50/50% to both parties My share will assist me to start a charity organization to help the poor and also own a company which has been my dream.

Let me know your mind on this and please do treat this information as TOP SECRET. We shall go over the details once I receive your urgent response strictly through my personal email address, benjamindabrah@gmail.com Have a nice day,and may GOD bless you.


Anticipating your communication.


Mr. Benjamin Dabrah
benjamindabrah@gmail.com

If I Could Travel Through Time...

I'd probably go see this.

Okay, it's nerd-gasmic. But probably only to me. It's also a little gay. And you wonder why I'm bitter I didn't get to attend the Torchwood/Doctor Who panels at Comic Con. Sigh.

Something Horrific This Way Comes...

And all for the low, low price of Indie.

Salt Lake City will soon be hopping up on zombies, blood, and all sorts of torture-porn. That's right, move over Sundance with all your arty films in which death must be meaningful and poignant. No, we're talking about a new festival for the independent filmmaker that (theoretically) is debuting this October:

The Salty Film Horror Festival



Now technically this festival is open to horror and sci-fi submissions, and from the sound of it, favoring the independent artist (read: staggering differences in quality of submissions). But then, that's what makes it fun, isn't it? I love Sundance but it gets extremely pretentious, and listening to d-bags in enormous fur coats argue over whether the movie made sense or not and let's go because there's just enough time to down a $200 bottle of wine before we have dinner reservations followed by some celebrity-studded party...

Well its time to get back to basics. And you can't get more basic than horror films. I've discoursed on horror films before, because they hold a special place in my heart. And truthfully, a grassroots (a term I loathe by the way, as its thrown around like so much germinating seed that I'm surprised every artistic industry isn't buried in a tangle of un-mown lawn) horror film festival in the land of the Mo's seems like a fantastic idea. There is no doubt that you'll see some of the worst cinematic attempts, and one can hope, a gem or two. Regardless, it is exciting to see some more cultural opportunities arise in our conservative state. It's a cause for celebration, for me at least, and will definitely be an enjoyable experience for anyone who likes independent films and people getting mutilated.

One of the exciting features is that they'll have many categories of entry, but tentatively two different 72-hour filmmaking contests within the festival, in which you'll get three days to create a horror film to be shown. At present they are scheduled early April and in August of this year. If you're at all interested it promises to be a fun opportunity and fairly inexpensive opportunity.

I know this will be of interest to a few of you that read this blog, and I encourage everyone to consider either a) submitting -you have several months and can submit all the way up until mid-September, for a rather nominal fee; or b) putting it on their calendar to attend and support, lest the festival die in its first year attempt. Check out their site and enjoy.

On a couple of horrifying side notes...

1. If you were hoping for a chance to run for the title of Miss Salty Horror ("the face of the Salty Horror Film Festival"), the ship has sailed. But maybe next year.

2. In another epic horror event, I attended the 70's Japanese fantasy-horror film House at the Tower theater this weekend. In an incredible display of blue-screening, soft focus, green-eyed cats and flowing scarves, this movie was an incredible and amusing experience. It runs until Thursday, so you have very little time to see it, but I highly recommend a viewing. My compadre Brady indicated that this was the first screening of the film since it's initial release, and I'm proud to have been privy to it.

So naturally I was bothered by some woman (one of the six of us in the screening) who complained rather loudly how little sense the film made. It still irritates me now, because whatever else you may say about death-by-mattress and travel-via-refrigerator, the movie was hardly incoherent. In fact it made plenty of sense with its visual if weak story line of girls vacationing at their spooky Aunt's home. Some people just have no taste. And if her palette found this incomprehensible, I can only imagine what other, more avant garde films might do to her digestion.

Here's a teaser in case you're hoping for a fear too beautiful to resist...