Today's Muse: Juice, Too Sweet

*Have been trying to stay away from coffee and tea lest I end up becoming too dependent on caffiene. But damnit, it would help.

*The Word Womb is showing at LaSalle-SIA, Studio Theatre on the 15th and 16th of March, 8pm. That's next week, Thursday and Friday. There was going to be a third show on Saturday, but that's been cancelled. Come down, take a look. It's a showing of work done by the Theatre Arts Diploma class; stuff they wrote themselves. It isn't linear, more a collective of moments.

*My nephew finished the first two Harry Potter books in as many days and is now onto the third book. He is eight years old.

*Remember Hungry? Well, come 27th April, the Theatre Foundation wil be presenting. Working title is The Room of Hungry Baby Shakers. Geddit? Geddit?

*Home internet is still broken.

*So much work.

Today's Post: Why Does Everything Itch?

I survived Chingay. The odds were stacked - my knee had swelled up, making crouching horribly painful; it rained just before both performances making sure that there was a good chance we would slip and die; and it was hot.

Really, really hot. I was fucking dripping. My glasses kept fogging up.

I made a baby cry.

A couple of girls scream.

A guy leap couple feet in the air trying to run away.

I win.


So, back to work. Play Analysis assessment is on Wednesday - that means the mask prototypes and the portfolio has to be ready for submission, along with the Legend of The Curse presentation. Library books are overdue. Knee still tender.

I am so very taken with his illustrations.

And: Shutdown Day. Can you last 24 hours?

Today's Muse: Toaster Ticking

I'm very tired.

I'm typing this in the dark, eating olives from a jar (They're very old, and must be consumed), with one potato stuck in the toaster and no coffee.

I'm very, very tired.

I am not burning out. I am not succumbing to any pressure. I am working well despite the many commitments; The To-Do for The Word Womb has been compiled and has items being steadily ticked off, the presentation on Lecoq is ready for tomorrow, a room's been booked for rehearsal for the chorus assessment piece. I like being busy. I love doing what I do.

I'm just tired, and a little grumpy.

Pardon me, my potato appears to be whistling.

Today's Muse: Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me

New toy - A first gen Creative Zen Neeon. A steal, too - 6GB for just $149. Finally, the transition from disc player to mp3 has been made. Even the bundled earphones that came with the player are miles above my old ones.

This video makes me happy. Trying to get me filthy mitts on the Ergo Proxy OST.

More work pouring in. There's the Chingay parade, which promises to be great fun. Assessment projects are taking shape, and expectations are definitely a notch higher than last year. Dance; presentation on Jacques Lecoq for Movement; Legend of The Curse piece for Play Analysis; duologue for Acting... And the Youth Company schedule! Woo.

Everything's going pretty smoothly, methinks. Legend of The Curse, for example, is a self-directed presentation for mid-semester assessment. It's a chorus piece from Berkoff's Agamemnon, and we've got the largest group. But it's surprising how much we've choreographed already, despite our size. In fact, rehearsal processes are a dream - everyone's giving ideas AND listening and considering. We all seem to be on the same wave-length, with movements coming very naturally.

Oh, oh!

Hungry.

We presented about half-an-hour's worth in Scene Prep, and we pulled it off. We had shown various scenes here and there in class this semester, but this was the first time we were running it through for an audience; complete with transitions, something we had been wrestling with since the beginning. And it went well. That's the truth. It is amazing what even a small audience will do - besides our classmates, the Tech Theatre Level 1's sat in. We do have to clean up some of the transitions; get rid of dead time, which I think ate into our half-hour limit.

Teach Matt commented how the surreal nature of the script allowed us to explore; more breathing space around performances - and I think that sums up why Hungry was chosen for this project. Something different, something new, something to play with. And it paid off, playing with character choices and movement - despite the quirky and sometimes extreme performances, they were all balanced.

A shout-out to Jac, our baby-in-a-jar - she's been working really hard on this, despite the difficulty and weird positions the character entails - but during that presentation it really paid off. "Excellent performance developing", were the exact words, and I know those mean a lot to you. I grin at you.

I think we should slow down now, before the final presentation, before we burn out. Just tweaking bits here and there. Hell, yesterday while watching Smoking Incense at the Substation, Laura came up with a brill idea to circumvent the lighting and transition problem.

I get to work with the terrific-est people. Eee hee hee.


First Young Company meet today. It was a working session, involving rolling around and much hopping. Eight weeks of body conditioning for the May extravaganza at Fort Canning. And mooooore shows! On stage! With them bright lights and ev'rything!


I'm so hyped up on how this year is shaping up. And I hope yours is, too. Sweet Amy-girl's all the way in Canada-land, and from her letters and pictures is very happy. Hullo, Amy-girl. I wave at you, here in technologically-primitive Singapore.

And so, I leave you with this:
Bruce Osborn's Oyako Photo Exhibit

Today's Muse: 157

Work work work. Work work worky work. Work.

Lessee if we can pull anything else out of the brain-pan...

The screaming from outside my window tells me that it's a new year. Golly gee.

It's been a good year though, methinks.

Work work work.


Alexine and Tristan are visiting. Tristan is such a sombre little creature. So quiet for a two year-old. I don't think he has met Elizabeth properly yet, it will be interesting. Yes. Bit like fire and water, methinks.

Alexine talks nineteen to a dozen about everything and anything, in English and French, sometimes both languages at the same time. Five children, all together, until Chinese New Year. Brian, Tara, Alexine, Tristan, and Elizabeth.

They're so small.

It... kills me. Funnily enough. I keep looking at them and thinking they're going to get old. I watch them politicking - with Tara and Alexine not sure whether they like each other or not and Brian, all of eight years, try to distance himself because he says he's too old.

Too old.

I'm too old and I'm not allowed in the ballpen unless I'm dragging Elizabeth out. I'm too old and I packed up the dollhouse to give to the girls. I'm too old and I buy picture books, beautiful sorts, at Bras Basah. Yakult bottles don't last the afternoon any more. Soft toys decay quietly on the top shelf.

I'm going to read this when I hit thirty and think, Well fuck you, Vic. Wait til you hit thirty.

And then I'll read it when I'm forty, and...


Work work work. Back to it, then.

Today's Muse: Bill's "Dark Lady"

I came across an amusing article while preparing for Tuesday's quiz (Psychoanalysis - Go me for finishing them Penguin Freud anthologies back when I shoulda been studying A.Math!).

Apparently, infatuation is "an attraction to a person who combines the worst traits of our parents/primary childhood caretakers, the negative traits we ourselves possess but refuse to acknowledge, traits we find attractive but are repressed due to our upbringing, and 'infatuating traits that society denies our gender' (Whatever that means.)"

Can you tell me why I found this funny enough to snort milk across the screen? Eh? Eh? Ppfft I dunno either.



Ooh, I feeel just lurverly, and it's not because of the cough syrup. Tomorrow is the first reading/meeting o' departments for this SHOW I've been lucky enough to attach meself to. There goes my holiday, but I never liked the slimy thing. Yay dark theatres and blinding lights and funky-smelling props!

Also, my essay is definitely on track. I've finally settled on a title, and the essay is slowly taking shape. I plan to hole myself up in M working on it between lessons. The IBM may be wonky, but at least it's light.

Next three weeks are going to be bluppt. Gamelan exam, Dance, Stage Combat, the SHOW, the other SHOW...

Tally ho!

I just looked at my calender and realised I have about six weeks to finish that essay, and I haven't done a whit of solid research. Gnash.

Where on earth did I put that The Beckett Project flyer?

EDIT: Oh. It's stuck to my wall.

Today's Muse: Awake

Holy guacamolee I am loving this. I've finished my essay for now, I'll probably be editing it until the last minute. Open-ended questions, feh.

Quick, someone give me more dodgy homework!


EDIT: Realised I do have more homework, for voice later this morning. Colouring in the spine and ribs. And me without a single colour pencil in the house.

I wonder if crayons will do?