Andy Laub

I did this before. Here it goes again:

As January hit Wisconsin, we were running down the middle of the street trying not to fall on our asses. Now that I think about it, that’s a pretty good metaphor for the year.

February took us to Chicago with some friends who used to live there, and we did all kinds of good stuff.

In March I bought a camera and took some pictures.

April was not so great, but in retrospect it was actually not so bad either.

I read a lot of books in May.

In June I loved the iPhone 4. And I still do.

I relaunched this site in July. (Side note: wow, that was only July?)

I rode my first ever half-century in August, which dovetailed nicely with my first ever 500 miles run in July.

On the subject of running, I ran a 10K race (off road!) in September. So much fun!

I accidentally another play in October. Is that bad?

In November, Conan came back and I made a pie. Both were delicious.

December. Miami.

I’m just going to put this out there: April of 2010 will go down in history as one of the more tumultuous months I’ve basically ever had. A lot of things happened very differently than I would’ve liked and there were a number of times where I was contemplating what would’ve amounted to a total reset on my life, even up until this week.

Thankfully, I think my coping mechanism has finally caught up and kicked in, and I’m feeling substantially better than I have been for the past few weeks, and I’m able to look at April as a month of “silver linings” versus simply being bad.

The biggest news is that I’m now officially self-employed. {hire} became my full-time pursuit at the end of April, and has been going about as smoothly as you can expect a sudden transition to freelance work to go. I’m very excited about both existing and potential partnerships, and also for the freedom allowed by my new schedule. Suffice it to say, it’s both the most and least stressful job I’ve ever had.

As a result, my daily routine has changed dramatically, as have my priorities. The awesome weather has made running every morning a joy, as has the fact that I now have the time to run every morning (instead of afternoon or evening). I haven’t been on the bike nearly as much, mostly because my commute now consists of walking up the stairs, but I’m trying to fit a longer ride in here and there as a break (ha!) from running.

Maybe it’s because it’s summer, but I’m also not gaming much right now. The Saboteur and God of War II are both sitting, unfinished. The only console game I’ve really enjoyed lately is Borderlands, and that’s because it’s a social activity. Instead, I’ve been reading a lot more; something I hope continues even as I slowly run out of books around the house.

Finally, I’ve decided that it’s time to take a break from theatre. I’ve had a lot of great opportunities over the last few years, but more recently it’s been taking its toll on my mind, my self esteem, and my schedule. Now is a good time for a hiatus, especially considering the aforementioned career change.

Last year I introduced the new year by participating in what had to have been one of the lamest questionnaires ever. This year I feel the need to again look back on the year that has just passed, but I want to do something that’s a little more original. Instead of a bunch of arbitrary questions, I’m choosing one event or experience from each month that has held the most significance in my mind.

The year started strong. January didn’t bring the same drama this year that it brought in 2008 (thankfully). Instead, I get to point out that that was the birth of the current iteration of this website.

February was relatively uneventful as well, aside from preparing for shows. But I did put together some awesome LEGO.

I spent a lot of time complaining about the weather this year, as I was already raring to get back on two wheels when March rolled around. That was only exacerbated by the new toy. The day trip to Minneapolis to pick it up was awfully fun too.

In April I put new wheels on my car. No, I mean I put them on. By myself.

May brought the first of a number of shows last year: The Last 5 Years, in which I was approximately 50% of the cast. It was a great experience and the theatrical accomplishment that I continue to be most proud of.

Then Godspell happened in June, and that was awesome too! Great cast, great technical staff, great venue, and a great show. Probably one of WCT‘s best, ever.

Things wound down a bit in July, but we had the official Godspell reunion / cast party up in Tomahawk. AKA Real World: Godspell. TEXT MESSAGES!

August was a quiet month, so I spent a lot of time on the bike, and did my first (and second!) 40-mile ride(s).

After years of planning and months of labor, Citizen Wausau 2.0 was finally launched in September, much to the excitement of those involved.

In October, I ran.

The only potentially negative item on the list happened in November, when I passed out on stage. Even then, it’s just something that happened, but I don’t think of it as being decidedly “bad”.

I had such a great vacation in December, you guys. Seriously, it was wonderful. Plus it was my birthday!

Saturday started innocently enough. A half-hour run, followed by some delicious cereal and a couple hours of nerdery before making my way downtown to prepare for the first of the day’s two performances of WCT’s 1776. It was shortly after noon when I walked through the stage door of the Grand Theater with my recently acquired sandwich, which I made short work of as I readied myself for the 2:00 matinee. Life was good.

As the show began, I felt awfully tired. I wrote it off to the heat, and after the first scene took the opportunity to rest a bit backstage as I had a long while before I need to return. I was still feeling a little sluggish afterward, and digestively something just felt… off. My next scene came and went, and while the tiredness went away, the nausea did not. I opted to miss my next entrance and spend some time in the bathroom (fill in the blanks), which seemed to help, and felt cool and rejuvenated for a short period after that. The feeling was short-lived, and the final few scenes left me feeling beat from every direction. I was still nauseous, and the tiredness from before became a full-on exhaustion.

It’s fortunate for me that 1776 is based around congress, and as such there’s a lot of sitting, because there’s not a lot else I was able to do at that point. It was a struggle just to keep my eyes open, and the lightheadedness I felt was becoming worse every time I had to stand for any reason. There was a point where I experienced what seemed to be a total disconnect between my brain and the rest of me, as I could not make my hands function.

As the show neared its end and we all approached center stage to sign the Declaration of Independence (spoiler alert!), I was struggling to keep it together for just a few more minutes. All I had to do was stand for a few moments, and then make it through bows, and then I was done. I failed.

My first thought: SHIT. I awoke to the curtain call music and the face of Edward Rutledge, one of a group of my fellow congressmen to carry me to the wing. If you’ve ever fallen asleep slightly while in a lecture or meeting or any other place where it’s inappropriate to do so, you may be familiar with the state where you start to dream and then you kind of wake yourself up. I think that’s what happened to me, except while I was standing up, and on stage. I’m fortunate that I was surrounded by others so I never even made it to the ground.

The next few minutes were… interesting. I only opened my eyes briefly after waking up, but I was so exhausted that I couldn’t keep them open. They sat me in a chair offstage, and I felt like I could’ve sat there basically forever and been happy. I can’t describe how relieved I felt (physically – how I felt mentally is an entirely different story) to just finally stop. I can certainly understand the cause for concern, as while I was totally lucid, that’s probably not what it looks like when somebody collapses and then just sits there with their eyes shut for ten minutes.

Eventually we went down to the orchestra lounge, where there are couches, and I rested a bit more. Abe brought me a Subway-brand cookie and that was delicious (did I mention he was in the audience for this show and this show alone? I was thankful for that). I was still feeling a little off when I stood, but I had some delicious pizza with the rest of the cast and felt a lot better. Fortunately the brother of a fellow cast member was able to step in for the Saturday evening performance (and did so with aplomb!), which left me free to go home and rest.

So it could’ve been a lot worse. Some people thought the collapse was part of the show (because that apparently happened when it was hot in congress back then), so I guess I can consider it my body’s own personal ad-lib. Fortunately I was able to return for the closing matinee on Sunday and celebrate the end of yet another fantastic WCT production with the rest of the cast and crew. I also owe them my thanks for their concern and help both before and after the incident.

(PS: I’m pretty sure it wasn’t actually the flu.)

Back in February I talked about a show that I was going to be part of called The Last 5 Years. Rehearsals for that picked up in early April and posting here (at least as far as articles of substance) correspondingly became few and far between.

Well, the show ran at the end of April/beginning of May and went absolutely great. We got so many compliments, and the Jefferson Street Inn totally delivered as a venue – seriously some of the nicest staff ever (thanks for the cookies). Shortly thereafter… actually, that’s not accurate; while L5Y rehearsals were going on, auditions and rehearsals for Godspell also started. I’m not going to go into details here with regards to the story of the show (uh – the bible, basically), but I will say that there were a couple weeks in April in May where I found myself totally overwhelmed with the prospect of a) working on two shows at once and b) catching up on the second show after the first show wrapped. There were some rough nights as I struggled to pick up choreography that I was absent for, and to experience that bond that actors get after they’ve been seeing eachother on a daily basis for 3 weeks in a row.

As June rolled around I was still stressed but starting to feel better about things. As though I didn’t have enough going on, I also was trying to squeeze in a daily bike ride and manage the graphic design for the show, which required not only materials for Godspell “the show” but also the imaginary band we created – but I digress.

Because both shows are so great, Abe jumped at the opportunity to direct both of them, leaving him in basically the same boat as me. His vision for Godspell (an interesting attribute of this show in particular is that it can really be set where ever you want, as long as it involves people coming together and forming a friendship) was that it would take place after a massive rock show at the Grand Theater. Thus, the setting for the show could remain as it had been during the concert, and the actors are “fans” of the band that have hidden away in the theater and snuck back on stage after the crowd departs.

So if you’re going to have a rock show, and fans, you need a band. Thus, The Almighty was born. And with the Almighty came posters, CD covers, and T-shirts, plus a generic graphic that could be easily applied to other items.

End digression. Anyway, so yeah, as if being stressed about acting weren’t enough, I was also stressed about the identity for this imaginary band. But in the end, everything clicked.

It would not be a lie to say that this is the most amazing show I’ve ever been apart of. I’ve enjoyed pretty much all of my stage experiences, but this one in particular stood out as the perfect storm of really great material, a strong and original vision, and a cast and crew who came together to produce what we’ve been told over and over is one of the best theatrical experiences they’ve had in a very long time. I really want to thank everyone who had a part in it, because everybody gave it their all and it shows.

I think everyone has their own way of deciding whether a particular performance was strong – I definitely reflect on my own contributions and try to determine what needs to be adjusted. But I also really enjoy trying to read the audience. I suspected we had a winner when there was screaming (of joy, obviously) after the first big song. I knew we had a winner when the standing ovations were immediate, every time. If you’ve ever been to a play, you know what I mean. Sometimes the audience won’t stand at all, or will stand reluctantly and gradually because a couple overly enthusiastic people jumped up right away. That was not the case here. As we lined up on stage, before we even got a chance to bow, butts were out of seats.

And now I’m thinking about it and feeling a little sad. I’m so proud of what we were able to put together. I mean, I’m really proud of my work in Last 5 Years, especially the singing that high, that much for 6 shows and not losing my voice part. But like I said, Godspell was a perfect storm. Of awesome.

Until relatively recently, my stage experience beyond the obligatory grade school Christmas Pageants was extremely limited. I was comfortable in the theatre environment and being around theatre people (I live with one!), but beyond The Wizard of Oz in high school and Cabaret in college, I hadn’t really thought much about acting.

Then Urinetown came along and the perfect storm of factors (awesome show + familiar setting + “the itch”) led me to a few solos and some actual lines.

I was hooked.

Connections from that show led me to Wausau Community Theatre, where I eagerly anticipate my eighth new role in the last two years. Again, it’s a show that I’m incredibly fond of, and again it pushes me into a new and strange environment. This is the first time I’ll be working with Abe as a director, and the first time that I make up exactly 50% of the cast.

The Last 5 Years is a story about a man (Jamie) and a woman (Cathy) and their relationship as it develops and ends over five years. The twist, if you want to call it that, is that Jamie tells his side of the story from the beginning to the end, while Cathy starts at the end and rewinds to the beginning. It’s quite interesting, because you’ll hear songs where Jamie is excited and enthusiastic about his life with Cathy, while she is frustrated and unhappy, and vice versa. If it sounds kind of convoluted, that’s because it is; but when you hear the music, it all clicks together and works really well.

Auditions for the show were quite early because of another WCT show happening first, and so rehearsal for this hasn’t kicked in yet and probably won’t for another month or so. Still, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this is the most excited and nervous I’ve ever been for a show: excited because it’s a role I’ve often admired, and nervous because I pray that I’m able to pull it off.

2008 ended last week, I guess. I feel like I wrote a decent amount, and I had every intention of writing a sort of “year in review” type of post. But I never got to a point where I had the right tone in my head, so instead I present you with this meme I found on the internerd. INTERNERD.

Achievements & Landmarks

What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?

Lost weight on purpose. Went into debt for a car that I fell in love with.

Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I guess so, and probably not. They were always a half-hearted promise to eat better and take better care of myself. Also I’m pretty sure I was resolving about a Mac Pro heavily at this time last year.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

Uh, our neighbors? Or did you mean emotionally close? Then no.

Did anyone close to you die?

Sort of close. It would be wrong to say we weren’t close at some point.

What countries did you visit?

This one.

What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

Patience.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I don’t think there’s one big thing that stands out, but I’m really proud of the work I did on Over the River and Through the Woods and Sweeney Todd. And losing weight counts as a major thing for me.

What was your biggest failure?

I let things fall by the wayside that shouldn’t have, and got angry way more than I should have.

What was the best thing you bought?

The Mac was the most practical best thing, and the Miata was the least practical best thing.

Whose behavior merited celebration?

What? Not mine, that’s for sure.

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

People I thought I could trust. Myself included.

Where did most of your money go?

Toys. Lots of toys.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Grand Theft Auto IV. Driving stick. Singing in public.

What song will always remind you of 2008?

Monsters, by Matchbook Romance. Lame, I know, but it got me stoked for rides at Nine Mile.

Compared to this time last year, are you:

Happier or sadder?

Sadder, but I shouldn’t be.

Thinner or fatter?

Way, way thinner.

Richer or poorer?

Richer.

Miscellany

What do you wish you’d done more of?

Enjoying myself. Letting things go.

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Worrying. Spending money.

How did you be spend Christmas?

With people whose company I enjoy.

Did you fall in love in 2008?

Only on stage.

How many one-night stands?

None.

What was your favorite TV program?

I enjoyed SNL, as usual. Surprise second goes to Prison Break for no reason whatsoever.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Yeah.

What was the best book you read?

I don’t know – something that was on the bookshelf.

What was your greatest musical discovery?

Stephen Sondheim. The man is a genius.

What did you want and get?

Dollars, which enabled me to get many other things that I wanted.

What did you want and not get?

Resolution. Recognition.

What were your favorite films of this year?

Iron Man, easily. Dark Knight was also enjoyable.

What did you do on your birthday?

Complain. It was a tough day for me this year. That’s what I get for being born on Christmas Eve.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

“Hey, this fits me now!”

What kept you sane?

The internerd. Driving. Acting.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Obama would be a logical answer.

What political issue stirred you the most?

Obvious also starts with an “O”.

Who did you miss?

People I could only talk to online.

Who was the best new person you met?

Somebody who helps keep me sane.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:

Let. It. Go.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

I don’t think I can. That’s pretty lame, even for this.

Bear with me; I’m going to head back to theatre-nerd reference land for a minute. I mentioned a few times that I was just in Gypsy, a show about a young girl who is pushed into burlesque and stripping by her overzealous, fame-seeking mother. There’s an exchange in the show between one of the strippers at the theater and the daughter in which the daughter explains that she “can’t be a stripper because she has no talent.” To which the stripper responds, “to be a stripper all you need to have is no talent.”

To be a designer all you need to have is no talent. Stop and think about that for a second. How many terrible designers do you know? People that have no artistic skill whatsoever but still manage to extract the dollars from desperate clients who don’t know that there’s a better act just down the street.

Near the end of the show, the daughter has accepted stripping and become quite famous for it. She makes a statement during her act about being an “ecdysiast”, or one who sheds its skin, and exclaiming that “at these prices, I’m not a stripper; I’m an ecdysiast!”

With that in mind, there are plenty of truly talented designers out there, and as is often the case, they have higher rates. But at the same time, you’ll find designers charging like they’re ecdysiasts when they’re not, and vice versa. Such is life on the internerd: anybody can claim to be anything.

The last couple weeks have proven rather interesting for me. Fridays have found themselves full of meetings, and as a result more work and some exciting prospects that are still in the early stages of the maybe possibly happening?

I’m part of a podcast now, The Insophisticate. It’s about technology, but really it’s just my friend Dino and me talking for a random amount of time about the stuff we’d talk about anyway. You might find it interesting if you dig that sort of thing.

Wausau Community Theatre is presenting Gypsy at the end of February. I’m fortunate enough to be a member of the cast, which means I get to hone my acting skills and be with people whose company I enjoy. There’s no dancing or singing for me in this one, which I was kind of bummed about at first but has actually been a blessing in disguise since it leaves me with more open evenings.

Mass Effect was pretty darn good once I figured out how to play it; Orange Box is a game no 360/PS3/PC owner should be without. I’m probably 5% into Mario Galaxy but I haven’t picked it up since last month.

But seriously. Good things are coming (I think). There’s not one big thing that I’m looking forward to, but rather a bunch of small things that, when combined, make me happy.

Sunday, not this past Sunday but the one before that, was the day that West Side Story migrated to its new home at the Grand Theater (on ARTSblock). And when I say West Side Story, I mean not just props and set but cast as well.

Daily we congregated in our representation of Hell’s Kitchen circa the 1950′s, and watched as love took hold in spite of racial barriers, only to be killed off by those same barriers. Our director summed it up when he explained that “It’s not a story about love at all. It’s a story about hate. It’s about how hate can kill love.” Also there was singing and dancing.

After the move we had tech rehearsals on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, followed by six shows over the next four days. And then it was done. The Saturday evening show rocked the house. Sunday’s matinee was followed by a brief strike, and the Grand was left with an almost cavernous feeling of emptiness. Before I left, I stood on the empty stage with mixed feelings. It’s always sad when a show ends, but I am grateful to have been a part of it and work with such a talented and friendly group of people, and thanks to Facebook I can actually keep in touch with them.

On the other hand, I am similarly grateful to regain ownership of my evenings, which I am inevitably using for other work rather than the video games they were intended for.

After that one show I did, one of the cast members told me I should try out for a Community Theatre show that he’s assistant directing; I approached that suggestion with some hesitation, but because I enjoyed the Urinetown experience so much, I resolved to definitely audition, no matter how I was feeling about it at the time.

Auditions came and went, and I ended up scoring the part of Action in WCT‘s West Side Story. It sounds like it’s a little meatier than my last role, which I’m pretty stoked about. I’m also happy because although this isn’t one of those shows that I just “had to be in” (Urinetown was), it gets my foot in the door for when a show like that comes along, and it’s a lot of fun to boot.

It will also help me occupy my time, as Abe is currently 9 hours and 6 time zones away, leading a group of middle schoolers through the British Isles for the next 2 weeks. So between this, watching movies, biking, a video game here and there, and watching the cats fight, time should pass pretty quickly, I guess.

The show has closed, and I’m left with some fond memories, new friends, and a whole lot more free time since my extracurricular activities are now back down to 0.

Except for moving… I guess we should finish doing that.

So because finding a house, packing, moving, and fixing aren’t all enough work by themselves, I wisely also committed myself to, well, being in a musical. Yes, acting. And singing. And dancing. We’re opening in a week, and it’s starting to feel pulled together, so I’m really excited.

But it’s not just any musical, oh no. This is Urinetown (The Musical). It’s a story about love, corruption, rebellion, and so much more. Also it’s funny. And the music is the best. The basic idea is that water has become extremely sparse, to the point where one huge company oversees public restrooms (the only kind available anymore) that people must pay to use. Those who refuse to pay are carted off to the mythical Urinetown (the place). So naturally, this… arrangement… doesn’t last more than a couple scenes, as the young hero finds himself leading a rebellion against bathrooms that you have to pay for.

Normally, I’d guess there’d be only a moderate amount of interest in the show before it opened and people actually saw it. But not this time. As this production was already in its planning stages, Stevens Point Area High School (SPASH) kicked around the idea of doing it but it got canned by the higher-ups. Thankfully, media, being what it is, smelled some sort of story, and so now we’re doing “The show banned in Stevens Point!” Hot damn.

Obviously, it’s still too early for reviews, but we did get a preview in the City Pages yesterday. While I admit I read them sparingly, there was one bit that was just too good:

Originally scheduled to be performed in Stevens Point Area High School in November of 2006, the SPASH superintendent and high school’s principal canceled it for what they deemed “inappropriate content” — specifically irony, a concept not dealt with in the school’s curriculum until 12th grade apparently.

Burn!

So anyway, if you’re in the area, come see it, because it’s awesome.

Urinetown (The Musical)
UWMC Theater

• March 9, 10 at 7:30
• March 11 at 2:30 2:00
• March 14, 15, 16 at 7:30

Reserved seating; for tickets call 715.261.6230

• $12 Adults
• $10 Seniors & non-UWMC Students

• The Acura RDX is interesting, but not interesting enough to get out of the car. Especially if you’re hungry.
• There is a Chipotle Grill near the Acura dealership in Bloomington. This is an exciting development, because it picked up what otherwise turned out to be an almost totally unproductive day.
• IKEA Minneapolis, I give up. You were temporarily oversold on not one, but both of the items I came there to buy. Last time we tried to buy a shelf you didn’t have any on the floor, and were unable to take them down from the overhead area before the next day. That’s… inconvenient to say the least. Word has it that 65% of your customer base is local, so this kind of service, while inconvenient, may be okay with them. But that leaves 35% of your customers that drive hours from other areas only to exit empty-handed. It seems as though you’re not familiar with inventory management, which is sad because even Wal-Mart is better at it than you.
• Marshall Field’s has officially transitioned to Macy’s, marking the 2nd name change for all the local stores in less than 5 years.
• If you plan on visiting the Genius Bar at the Apple Store, prepare to wait.
• The 24″ iMac is beyond ridiculous. Abe thought it looked blurry.
• The 17″ Macbook Pro has the same max resolution as my 20″ Apple display.
• We checked Verizon, T-Mobile, and Cingular. None of them had Blackberry cases.
• CompUSA had manager’s specials on video games and that’s why they’re my favorite store. And also why I own PGR 3.
• Circuit City has an overwhelming number of large TV’s. And they were playing the same Eagles concert DVD that they were last time we were there. In July.
• It’s lame when the band you came to Minneapolis to see cancels for “a band emergency.”
• Olive Garden breadsticks and soup are good. And better when combined. Like Voltron.

I am finishing up my viewing of the (Tivo’d) MTV Movie Awards. I really thought it was a well-done show this year, eschewing overly complicated backdrops in favor of a relatively simple arc of (massive) monitors. It proved to be incredibly versatile and looked awesome for all three of the musical performances (Gnarls Barkley, Christina Aguilera, and AFI).

Of particular interest to me was Gnarls Barkley, in part because I’d never heard the music before but also because of their presentation. They decided to go with a Star Wars theme which sounds a little cheesy but was way, way better than it sounds. Aside from how good I thought the song was (which resulted in me buying the album), I couldn’t help but be reminded of PDF by the bass-playing Storm Trooper.

And Chewbacca on drums? Priceless.

Finally, just for the record, I am convinced that Christina Aguilera has the talent and versatility to follow in Madonna’s footsteps.

home A&W airport plane New Super Mario Bros Brain Age airport taxi New York New York pizza slot machines room sleep leftovers Paris Bellagio Imperial Palace cars The Venetian The Mirage Treasure Island Chipotle mall Apple Store Macbook fashion shows Caesar’s celebrities Lamborghini NYNY nap dinner MGM Grand lions Madonna bright lights NYNY pretzels room Brain Age sleep checkout Monte Carlo adidas Store bus The Wynn bag check KFC Ferrari bus Fremont St. old casinos porn stars waiting bus The Wynn dinner Avenue Q taxi airport Pizza Hut plane iPod airport home

Pictures are worth more words than I wrote.

During a discussion about travel last week we were discussing places that we’d like to see. Among others, I mentioned Las Vegas just because it seems like one of those cities that everyone should visit at least once. I mentioned that it would be great to go if there was a really good reason.

Fast forward two days, and the first thing Abe says when I wake up is “Do you want to go see Madonna?” This is kind of out of the blue but after having seen what her performances are like I know that it is definitely something I’d want to go to. Abe says that she’ll be in Chicago in the middle of June.

And this is where it happens. My response: “where else is she playing? Is she playing in Vegas? Can we see Madonna in Vegas?” She indeed is playing in Vegas, as it turns out, but we’re pretty sure we can’t go because that’s in May before the school year ends. So we figure Chicago is a good enough alternative.

Abe calls me at work: “She’s actually in Vegas on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. We could go if you want to. Tickets for that go on sale Saturday (the 8th).” I’m kind of unsure at this point because I was halfway serious about the Vegas thing. It would be fun, but it will definitely be expensive. He checks out travel info anyway while I try make up my mind.

We are going to Vegas! That night we book the tickets for the plane and the hotel. We’ll be flying out at 9:00PM from Madison on Friday and returning at 12:00AM on Sunday night. The flight’s a good deal and with it timed the way it is, we only need two nights at the hotel. Now the only issue is actually getting tickets for the show, which has to wait until Saturday at noon.

That’s not to say we aren’t prepared. The iMac, Powerbook and Alienware are all in full-on ticket-buying ready mode, along with the two cell phones. We manage to snag two tickets along the side of the arena, much to our relief, and the worry ends. TicketMaster sells out by 12:05, but we don’t care:

We are going to Las Vegas to see Madonna.

Tonight marks the start of ArtRageous Weekend, which includes the Wausau Festival of Arts (right in our front yard!), Art in the Park, and Birds in Art. It all kicks off with the aptly-named Kickoff Concert featuring Unified Soul. ABE was there, soundboard aglow, working his audio magic as usual.

I was there too, eating McDonald’s and taking photos. I didn’t work any kind of magic whatsoever.

So some friends of ours got married yesterday. The wedding was gorgeous as was the reception, and the evening was a fun one, interspersed with partying, more Mario Kart, and One-Man Star Wars.

In the midst of a Mario Kart frenzy, we made the switch from Double Dash to Mario Kart 64, at which point PDF accused our TV of breaking the game.

It’s strange when that happens – the perceived degradation in image quality in an older game after playing a newer game. When I first got Double Dash I didn’t realize how much of a graphical improvement it was. 64 looks downright old and jaggy by comparison.

That makes me wonder about Goldeneye; prehaps it’s not as good as I remember?

My friend Alicia (‘George’) was reprising her role as Marilyn Monroe today for a living history exhibit at the local Historical Society. She said this was her best Marilyn hair ever.

We had the good fortune to see Wicked on Saturday night, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone in the Chicago area (=Wisconsin) or the cities in which the tour will be stopping. The version in Chicago just started its own run two weeks ago starring SNL veteran Ana Gasteyer who, unfortunately, was not in our performance. Instead, we got to see Kristy Cates reprising the role she played in both the Broadway version and the tour, so it was easily just as good if not better. Abe had some issues with the sound, but that seems to be the case at every show we go to and at some point you kind of just shrug it off.

Yesterday we took the opportunity to wander about downtown Chicago. It’s a very nice city and despite having been born in the area, I’d never really spent any time there. Expect more pictures soon.

I’m still in the midst of getting this new site totally functional, and because it’s WordPress and PHP, it’s taking me way longer to figure things out.

And I just remembered, we saw War of the Worlds on Friday night, and it is easily one of the best summer blockbuster movies, ever. Just really, really well done. I liked it.

Yep, so I mentioned on the fly yesterday that Abe is now a Mac user. Here are some lovely pictures.

We are back from Green Bay, and Les Mis was good yet again. There were some sound issues, however and the cause of these ended up being a dysfunctional computer, which resulted in quite a few missed cues in the first act. I wanted to say that it wouldn’t have happened on a Mac, but I was afraid he’d say that they were using a Mac. Plus that’s kind of an annoying thing to say. I’ll be the first to admit that Macs have their problems, but they more than compensate for them.

We are on are way to Door County this weekend. That sould be a nice time-killer. I don’t know that I am happy to be going because I feel there are other things I *should* be doing, but I’m not doing them.

I saw this Capitol Steps show last night. I was glad to see it but also glad I didn’t pay for it. It was OK and pretty clever, but the music was their words to other peoples’ songs instead of being original which was disappointing.

Oh yeah. I got rid of all my a class="two" tags and replaced them in the CSS with body a:link etc. Exciting stuff, I know.

Yesterday we went to see Billy Joel’s Movin Out at the Fox Cities PAC. Surprisingly, it was not a musical, as we expected it to be. We figured it’d be similar to Mamma Mia, but it turned out to be more of a ballet type thing. It was very good. The lead singer was Darren Holden, and he did a spectacular job.

We also took the opportunity to eat at Victoria’s, an absolutely fantastic Italian restaurant. All in all, it was a very nice day, especially considering the weather.

Also:

• I got my helmet.
• www.subservientchicken.com
• Maynard was sitting under the desk and licking my knees
• I still like Grand Theft Auto.

I am the biggest slacker ever, perhaps. Not really though. I have a real job and that counts for something. I’m sure there have been a lot of things that have gone on recently. I picked up a coupla GC games (Legend of Zelda, Wario World, Star Fox Adventures) for fairly reasonable prices. I like the first two; I have yet to play the third one. It also occurs to me that Abe hasn’t written anything for like, a year so maybe I can convince him to do so. Right now he’s working on more edumacations from Phoenix online. I think it’s effective albeit boring. Hey, we saw Urinetown this past weekend and I think it would have to be the best musical I’ve ever seen, ever. It was great. I would definitely see it again. Also, I found this Danger Mouse guy in a Spin magazine, and was rather enthused. Although I have yet to listen to his music, I really like his costume.