rockin’ my world or the topography of pain

last night at Martial Arts I learned the hard way to keep my guard up. By the hard way, I mean that I got caught by a great cross/hook combination. We were working on our boxing in preparation for our Shootfighting test. I was lucky enough to get to spar with our teacher, Coach James. Coach has been working on this for years and is a very competent boxer. He also hits like a ton of bricks. Things were going well at first (mainly ’cause he wasn’t throwing punches). But after the first minute or two my hands started to get real heavy and began to drop. Suddenly he was on top of me with a flurry of punches. Uggg… A rising cross slipped through and popped me up. And just as I started to trip over my back leg (I think my body was trying to take me into a defensive roll… which also ain’t kosher in boxing but is ok in Kung Fu) *BANG* the lead cross connects with the right side of my head on the cheek bone. That reset me like a nintendo. It didn’t knock me out, but it took me half a sec to get myself back together. Suddenly it hit me “hey… I’m not standing up… wind is rushing by me… oh, I’m falling… that’s not good.” Thankfully I was in mid fall and managed to keep my head tucked (so I didn’t brain myself on the floor). Even more thankfully, Coach stopped me from getting up. I would have kept sparring, but I had no problem lying there, counting ceiling tiles, for a minute or three. Basically the entire experience reminded me that I don’t like getting hit (especially when it’s hard) and to keep my guard up.

I still made it through Kung Fu. Man, I was pulling 101 monkey moves outta my butt while sparring my classmates. Then it was time to work with Sifu. And once again I got schooled, which is all good and extremely frustrating at the same time. Mainly because I was focusing on one aspect of what I was doing so intently that it blinded me to other options. I had good root and intention, but not creativity or multiple attack angles in what I did. Grrrrrr. On the plus side the fact that he’s been upping the ante the last few times we sparred is a good sign. Now what I really need to do is carve out more time to practice outside of class.

Otherwise, I’m off to see another play tonight and continue to work out our plays. We had a good meeting yesterday with the Rochester Arts Council, including learning that they may be able to help us with getting funding while we wait for our non-profit status to come through. And that’s all good.

as promised…

here’s a higher res pictureof the new hair and glasses. I think it’s a big improvement. Tell me what you think (there’s a new insta poll to your left)! This was taken yesterday in the kodak.com lunch room. Speaking of lunch…

ljc: see, I saw no good would come of this…

…today at lunch, Andy decided to braid Tony’s hair. All was going well until Andy noticed something in Tony’s hair. Here’s what happened next…

That’s about it for today. I was going to rant and rave about the sorry state of the American news media, but I just don’t have the time or energy. Consider yourself lucky (for the moment). Oh, new MP3: Reel Big Fish covering the Cure’s Boys Don’t Cry. Check it out….:

I was wandering through Wegmans on Sunday when I came across this: The Republic of Tea’s Botswana Blossom Red Tea (try saying that three times fast). A friend had told me about red tea a few weeks ago and predicted that it would be the big new thing in tea (ok, after re-reading that sentence I realize how dumb it sounds, but I’m leaving it in anyway). I’m happy to report it’s really yummy (they describe the taste as (and I quote): South Africa Rooibos features citrus, apple & the natural sweetness of almonds & vanilla, with the scent of rose petals) and filled with anti-oxidants. Those at kodak.com are welcome to come over and sample.

Gorillaz: the day after

Yesterday I found Josh’s Gorillaz “Fansite” which provides you with the complete backstory of the band. I learned for example why 2d’s eyes are black, why Russels’ eyes are white, and officially confirmed that Noodle (and that’s how it’s spelled) is a, 11 year old girl and she plays the guitar, not the bass.

The picture above is of a Billboard up on Hollywood Blvd for the next month courtesy of the Guerrilla Girls. Not that it should be a surprise to anyone, but: Did you know that no woman has ever won the Oscar for Best Director? That 94% of the writing awards have gone to men? Or that only 3% of all the acting awards-lead and supporting-have ever gone to people of color. Read more about it here.

as promised

It’s not a great picture, but here’s my complete new ‘do put into historical perspective. Behold the evolutionary process of my hair & glasses.

it’s gotta be the hair

while I was out Saturday night I ended up talking to lots of purdy girls (go hair!). So far the comments have been really positive (yea Vivian, sooper hairdresser!). All and all I think the right decision was made. I’m happy to annouce that people who suggested short hair in December and Novemeber were right! However, Joel, who suggested the short shorts look is still very, very, wrong!

The weekend was eventfully uneventful. I worked on getting my apartment in to better shape, getting a lot of the program work done on the play, and even got out to see two plays. Following the usual pattern, one of them was pretty good and the other was two hours of my life I’m not getting back. That second play was Playhouse Creatures and the acting wasn’t too bad. But the directing, art direction and tech sucked. The tech especially; either they had a surge problem or there was an epileptic controlling the light board. Oh well (geez with all these comments about local companies I’m building up a lot of “bad theatre karma.” Hopefully that won’t come back to bite me when our shows are on). After both plays it was off to the East Ave “nightlife area” and chattin’ it up wit da ladies (I’m bad, I’m bad, I know it…)… or something like that.

Gorillaz Day pt2Di sent me a website that is hosting the Gorillaz animations that were shown at the concert The Game of Death one is especially good (ahh Noodlz, I love that little guy). Check them out here. (It’s in French, but scroll down and you’ll see them)

I didn’t have a good subject line for this morning. I’m still getting used to my hair (or lack there of). I got it cut yesterday (and I mean CUT!). I blogged about it last night, but it’s at the end of an already long post and I’m not sure if anyone read that. I’ll get a picture up by Monday.

In other news, you’ve heard of sneaking into movies. I snuck into a play yesterday. Don and I went to see Below the Belt again at Geva. Or at least that was the plan. Before the show I decided to go ice skating at a nearby park. And I totally flaked out on when the play started. I was sure it was at 8.00pm (it was actually 7.30pm). By the time I got to the theatre the show had already started. So, being the devious thinker I am, I went out for a cup of coffee, read the first act (we had gotten a copy of an earlier version of the script) and then went back to the theatre and walked in while everyone was milling around during intermission, acting like I’d been there the entire time. Once intermission was over I found open seat and enjoyed the second act. What can I say? I’m a smooth criminal :-P

On to my long list of “to-do” items for today… fun fun fun

keepin’ it short

as in my hair. Now. There was more of it on the floor of the salon than there is currently on my head. Probably double at least. I don’t have a high enough quality dig cam right now so you’ll will have to wait until Monday for visual confirmation. :-)

bits and the friday five

hmm, maybe I was a leetle over the top last night in my comment excitement. I was never able to get the PHP script Heather sent me to work. The app I’m using is cgiComments, a script I found linked from this great blog resource page. And installing it really was like pulling teeth :-(. I’m no CGI expert and I haven’t done any form of hard programming in almost six years. But after a couple false starts (and fighting the desire to throw my computer from the loft) I was able to mod the script correctly. So in honor of that achievement I post the following poetic snippet (which I don’t think I ever really understood until last night):

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works ye mighty and despair!

- Shelley, Ozymandias

It’s a big day today: the CFI wraps, I get comments working, and I leave at 4.00pm to get a new hair cut. Oh the possibilities. In the mean time here is my Friday Five:

1. What’s your favorite vacation spot? I have two: New Orleans and Europe. I’ve only been to Europe once, and not to vacation (during my secret agent days), but I’m sure that I’d love to vacation there. As for New Orleans, I’ve been there three times and still can’t get enough. It’s just such a fascinating mix of old and new, good and evil, sin and salvation. Plus it’s full of photo opps (and I don’t mean the girls on Burbon st). And still to this day I’ll get the occaisonal 2.00am craving for Cafe du Monde’s Cafe Au Lait and Beignets. Mmmmm, powdered sugar (right Tina?)

2. Where do you consider to be the biggest hell-hole on earth? There are a few. The city of Las Vegas (not te outlying area), Troy NY, and being a Long Islander, the entire state of New Jersey (Bridge and Tunnel Trash). Actually, I’m not to big on most of the Carribean either: abject poverty that is carefully hidden from tourists who stay in veriable palaces.

3. What would be your dream vacation? Going to places where I can emerse myself in either rich nature or history and hopefully learn about myself. China, Europe, Alaska. I love places where I can be immersed in a city one day and escape civilization (or at least the country) the next.

4. If you could go on a road-trip with anyone, who would it be and why? Probably my brother Glenn. Mainly because it’s been a dream of his to drive cross country in a VW Mini Bus full of potato chips and a gituar. The plan would be to drive until you ran out of chips or songs, talking to people along the way. I’ve often thought of buying a car on the Internet from someone from the West Coast and driving it back to Rochester.

5. What are your plans for this weekend? Possibly going skating tonight and then to see a play. Saturday and Sunday are work days. We’ve got a lot to do on this production and if I can get some of it accomplished this weekend it will take a lot of pressure off me in the weeks to come. Plus I still have cleaning to do.

IT’S ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!! MY CREATION LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!

I’VE DONE IT! I’VE GOT COMMENTS. AFTER 4 HOURS I NOW HAVE COMMENTS ON MY BLOG (and apparently a stuck caps-lock)! KNEEL BEFORE THE AWESOME POWER OF MY BLOG!!!!!!…

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…um, ok, now that it’s done I’m going to sleep. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz