Mmmmmm yummy.
Ray had to create rain on stage for their current production and one afternoon we went in to watch the matinee show and see how the rain was turning out. Then after the audience and cast members and everyone was gone, Ray had to gear up to start climbing around the grid to make a few minor tweaks to the rain system.
If I weren't so bundled comfortably right now in my chair around the computer, I'd get myself up to go take pictures of the indoor herb and plant garden that I've been growing. And they are growing like crazy! We went to Home Depot and got the equipment needed to grow year 'round and Ray rigged it all up for me. We've got Chives, Parsley, Thyme, Lemon Thyme, Mint, Basil, and Tomatos, as well as my two new plants that a class of students gave to me as a present on their final show night.
We never did get up to camping last month. We had the five days off, but Ray followed right behind me in coming down with a real bad, achey cold that lingered too long. I miss the camping and the location. I probably think about Westfield and wonder what it looks like and wish that I was there about two times a week.
So while sitting at home feeling miserable for so long, Ray got his mind into learning to read music. I told him that after learning so much on the banjo, a guitar would seem a bit easier. And sure enough, he took to it at a much faster rate. We headed to the burbs and picked up this very pretty and deep warm sounding Washburn for him, which he practices on for hours every single day.
The new Fall term has begun at the Second City Training Center! My boss, Mike, has accepted the promotion to being now on the ETC stage which has meant that he's had to cut down the # of classes he teaches this term. We had been splitting the duties 50/50 for the last two years. Now I'm picking up two significant workshops/performances from him as well as smaller one-off classes this term and getting a little extra pay for it. I don't mind it at all. The work is so worthwhile.
Linda K and I are back to rehearsing regularly and gearing up for the CD launch. I've been getting more and more annoyed with the out-datedness of my keyboard and its poor outdated sounds, that I'm really hoping to get to pick up a new keyboard on Wednesday. My Casio is a WK1800 (which was a replacement for my WK3500, going backwards in quality), and Guitar center is having a KILLER Sale on the most recent Casio WK6000 for under 300 bucks. Wow.
So I'm thrilled about working with Linda and watching her continue to blossom and bloom. Last week Ray and myself went to Macy's with her to try on appropriate wear for the Jazz setting. It was so much fun and she looked awesome in everything we picked - though admittedly Ray had the best vision for the look we were after.
All things are good in these parts. The plants are growing, the students are learning, the music is getting real good. Oh! A few other music things...
Every Friday of this month I've been doing Jason Chin's Halloween musical "Friday the Halloweenth". I wrote the music for the show and the cast is very fun, if not so so so young! Gosh I used to be part of the young crowd being intimidated by the iO theater, and now I'm the oldie passing on musical guidance to my green cast.
Then this December I'm working with Rich Prouty on re-mounting "Listen Kid..." the parody musical comedy written by (emmy award writer) Peter Gwinn from the Colbert Report (with music by Me :-) ). The show will run on Saturdays at 7:30pm at the Donny Skybox theater. We have to edit it down for the venue, but that's making us tweak down to its best moments and put on a better show.
Alrighty... So that's about it for my latest update. We are just having a dandy Fall this year and I'm very happy and grateful for it. Mellow and snuggly. And for some reason, Ray's been particularly romantic these days which just makes it all that more peaceful and nice for me as the weather turns chillier and greyer.
Yes, I should Definitely put up picks of my plants next time! Will do that.
Bye for now...
A monkey at work!
This is either really early in the morning, or real late at night. We just have fun.
