Somewhere Between the Sacred Silence and Sleep: Disorder

Greetings! Man, what a week....

First things first. The play! Yay, it's over! And was it FUN. Can't say it was perfect - there were a couple dropped lines and some projection problems, and the video didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped... but the play itself was ridiculously well-received. I mean, immediate  standing-O... not sure I've ever been involved in a play that was so immediately well-received. I talked to lots of folks, and everyone seemed to love it. In fact, everyone I talked to had a different part of the play that was their favorite - that seems to indicate to me that the play was pretty solid throughout.

Plus, it was just flat-out fun to perform. Man, I hope the other actors had a fraction of the fun I did in performing their roles. It was odd... I'd never attempted a role of this size and complexity before - I should have felt more overwhelmed than ever. But I didn't. Once I got into the opening monologue, something shifted, and I just had fun. I hate to sound redundant here, but as much as I enjoy acting, it always is stressful to me, and any fun I feel is always after the fact, upon reflection... but during the performance, I'm usually somewhere between extreme concentration and panic, until my final line, after which the sense of overwhelming relief will give way to a sense of ultimate satisfaction and enjoyment. This time it was just flat-out fun.

Due to technical difficulties upstairs, the opening monologue didn't make it onto the recording, so the DVD begins about 8 minutes in. Bummer. This will obviously make watching the play on disc a confusing mess - the opening monologue sets the whole story up. I was contemplating going back to the church by myself sometime, and setting the scene back up, and re-recording the opening, and editing it into the recording, while it's still fresh in my head.

But I have a disc, and I'll burn it to my computer tonight, and upload it to my Viddler account. I'll post it on my Wagnervana site and link to it, for the handful of you that might want to watch some of it. But keep in mind, most of the magic in a play is in seeing it live. A lot is lost in the translation to the screen. But I'll post it, link to it, and add the text for the opening monologue, so you can get the gist of what was missed.

Bottom line, this is how I felt after we were done...

Everyone in the cast was awesome. Great job.

This has been an incredible year. Full of the most extreme highs and lows. I can't (won't) go into all of it in this forum. I may write a summary of the year in my journal, just to document it. I'd say, other than the year after I graduated high school, this has been the most eventful, important year of my life. I mean, pendulum extremes, as far as highs and lows. Those that know me know some of them, I'm sure, but nowhere near all of them.

Yeah, I need to write a summary down somewhere.

But I can throw down a Best of 2011 List, as far as the more innocuous things...

Best Book I Read This Year (first time read): The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie
Best Book I Read This Year (re-read): Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
Best Movie I Saw This Year: Pulling John
Best Music: Angels & Airwaves
Best Game: Skyrim
Best Blog: Rememorandum (Honorable Mention to 100-Fold Christianity)

In honor of my Best Game winner, here is some Skyrim humor that only Logan will find amusing. The rest of you, I dunno... like, skim down a bit or something...

Trust me... Logan will find those amusing... that alone should make posting them worthwhile...

So we have family here from out of town... we found places for everyone, believe it or not. They're good folks, so I'm sure all will be well.

On another note, I found a cool-looking writer's group that meets in Oceanside every week, called the Antisocial Writers and Social Misfits. They look like a fun bunch, so I signed up, hoping I could find a group of writers that could help me get my feet under me, as far as my big writing projects. Well, it turns out they meet Wednesday nights! Doh! The only night of the week that I have a prior obligation! I wish I'd noticed that beforehand! So now I'm torn. I think for January/February, I'll go to every other meeting, and see how/if I can fit in... Then I'll need to decide where to devote my Wednesday nights... I've been going to Stan's for the weekly prayer night for a couple years now... I don't want to just jettison it on a whim. But I really need the writing help, to get unstuck... so for the short term, I'll divide my team and see what happens...



Speaking of writing/reading, I have another blog post to recommend. Another eFriend who posted a piece on why guys should date a girl who reads. Very well done, worth your time. Click here to read it, eh! It'll just take a couple minutes!

Gotta scoot. Adios.

Dave