Goodbye, 2008...Hello, 2009!

Happy New Year, Everyone!

I know it's been a while since I've written in my blog (ahem....almost 3 months), so you can probably guess what my New Year's resolution is going to be. Yes, it is my resolution that I will write in my blog more frequently. First order of business, I will do a summary of the time I had missed (sorry about that...I sort of left y'all hanging about how the show went). Then, I will try to do at least one entry a week. Ironically, when I have more stuff to write about, I'm too busy to have time to write it; however, I will try my hardest!

So, all the best for 2009. I will look at the upcoming year as I try to look at life in general - with optimism, knowing the importance of humour, even when finding the joy and rapture in our world is not so easy, and remembering to live, laugh and love. I hope you do the same.

So much rehearsing, so little time

Opening Night is one week tonight. Enough said.

It's basically rehearsals everyday, but not trying to over-do it cuz we have to save our voices (as well as try to stay healthy, which is proving to be very difficult as it is) for our 7 shows in 5 days, which is even harder to do by the end of the run because we have matinees and evening shows on the Friday and Saturday.

We're still doing some changes, reworking some things, polishing stuff, etc. But it's coming along. We go into the actual theatre we'll be performing in on Thursday. The Sudbury Star came in today to take some shots of us, so it seems like we're getting some good advertising in the community. Also, a bunch of people from the hospital are organizing a whole gang to come on closing night, as well as a bunch of friends from Toronto/Ottawa.

I still have to figure out what we're gonna be doing when they get here. I know we have dinner reservations for the hospital folk and my out-of-towners before they all see the show on Saturday. Then after the show I have to strike the set, and then meet up with them again at a bar/lounge/club place downtown, and then make my way after to the official cast party. I'll probably collapse by Sunday. Plus, I'll have to figure plans with my peeps when they get in on Friday night, what we're gonna do in the morning on Saturday, and the plan for Sunday.

I don't want this to sound like complaining at all. I'm so thankful and honestly feel lucky to have such a supportive network. This is me just trying to organize my thoughts so I know what I have to think about over the next week...on top of my lyrics, my harmonies, my blocking, my choreo, and my WORK. Dammit! I still have to work all next week too!

Well, I know all this hard work and effort is worth it in the end. I hope the show goes well, and I have full confidence that everyone is gonna love it. Having my sanity and my health at the end of it all is another story, but there's no "I" in "Broadway". Okay, I don't know if that made sense, so it's obviously time for me to sleep.

Blogged Down

Once again, I am apologizing for my lack of Coloblogging. But, it's busy being a star! Well, I'm not really star, but there are 2 CTV commercials running (or will be running) in Sudbury about the show. And…CTV is coming to film us on Sunday! Other than that, I've been busy at work and all of my Cinefesting last week. So, I'm pooped!

I'm still going to tennis. The gym, however, is a different story. I will be going tomorrow, though. I promise! Other than that, it's rehearsal after rehearsal, after rehearsal. Opening night is fast approaching, so I'm popping the Echinacea pills like nobody's business. I'm trying to get enough Vitamin C that I could become the personification of it. And, I will be purchasing special teas that will sooth my throat – a necessity after all the singing I'll be doing. So, *knock on wood*, I shouldn't be sick during the show. Cuz once I'm sick…there go the high notes!

Also, I must give a shout out to my MA crew who are planning to drive up from Toronto and Ottawa to come see the closing night and to take in all that Sudbury has to offer. It's actually very touching that they're coming all the way here to see the show and to see my Northern Ontario life, so I hope I don't disappoint.

Okay, so that the update. Time to watch some season premieres.

TIFF off the Ol' Block

Last night I went to the gala screening of Happy-Go-Lucky at the Sudbury International Festival. Yes, Sudbury has a film festival, and an international one at that. But, before I continue on with my retelling of my evening, I must preface this with how bummed I was that I was missing TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) this year. I have gone to the festival the last two years, watching tons of movies! And last year I got to go to the festival’s opening and closing galas, the picnic and even got into the Juno after party! Well, since I’m a glass-half-full kinda guy, I figure I’ll make the most of my situation and get myself into going to the film festival here. And yet again, Sudbury has pleasantly surprised me!

So, last week, a co-worker of mine and I decided that we were going to go to some movies for “Cinefest”, which is what they call the film festival up here. Because of my hectic schedule, I am only free on Monday, Friday and Tuesday if I skip my tennis league. We decided to go to the gala on Monday (yesterday), not because of the movie per se, but mostly because I was free and that it’s a gala. What’s great with a gala screening is that after the movie, there’s a reception at a nearby venue with food AND free booze. FREE!!! Yes! And the gala tickets only cost $19.50. At TIFF, a ticket to a regular movie will cost you 20 bucks.

We decided to make a night of it, so we went to grab some sushi downtown first. The movie started at 7pm and we wanted to be there around 6 so we could decent seats. So, we had dinner at about 5 o’clock. The sushi wasn’t bad. It was pretty good, decently priced (for Sudbury, not by Vancouver standards). My only complaint was that the edamame was overcooked, but it was complimentary so I can’t bitch about it too much. After some good chats and my co-worker's first taste of yummy, yummy spider roll (soft shell crab, for those of you not in the know), it was off to the movies.

Unlike TIFF, Cinefest movies take place at one venue – at the ONE Silver City in town! But, it does make it easier than trying to make your way all throughout downtown Toronto if you’re watching multiple movies in a day. And apparently, if a theatre is full, they’ll just show it on another screen, which I don’t think happens at TIFF either. Anyway, we saw the movie and I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t know much about the movie and the synopsis in the movie guide wasn’t very attention-grabbing – really it’s all about the gala afterwards! But I thought it was really funny. The actress in it was amazing – so funny and quirky! Anyway, here’s the IMDB link to it: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1045670/

Then, after the movie was the gala. This time the gala took place at The Keg across the street (it’s different after each movie). It was a bit crowded in there…or a lot crowded! Luckily, after being able to squeeze through to the back of the restaurant, my co-worker saw some people she knew who had a table. I had a couple glasses of red wine, some cocktail shrimp, crab and beef and pork appetizer thingies – it was great! Well, the people there were scavengers when it came to the trays of food, but we eventually got food served to us. So, all in all, I had a fabulous time. Free food and drinks (and you know it tastes better when it’s free), a great movie and even great company. And I'm going to a movie tonight instead of tennis (not a gala though), but I am going to another gala on Friday night! GO SUDBURY! Keep the pleasant surprises coming.

I signed up for musicals, not Drama

Wow…sorry! Two weeks without Coloblogging!

Okay, so a lot of sh*t has gone down since I last posted. So, since the last time I talked about rehearsals, the Best of Broadway 2 cast has gone from 14 to 12. So, there have been two casualties in the last week.

What happened was that one lady…well, she was just a bit overwhelmed. She wasn’t picking up the blocking and the lyrics and everything, I guess, as fast as she’d like to. She was also getting rather fatigued. She’s retired, and even though she spent all her time working on remembering her harmonies and blocking, she just couldn’t do it. We were sad to see her go and bless her heart cuz she tried her hardest. She definitely got on some people’s nerves a bit, but she did her best and at least she decided to stop now, as opposed to right before we open.

Just this morning, I open up my email and find out that they (the director and vocal director) have decided to “remove” a gentleman from the show. Apparently, “His commitment level was not what we were hoping it to be, and we refuse to wait any longer”. So, that’s that. I mean, it’s too bad he won’t be in the show – he has a great voice! But, he hasn’t been around, that’s all it is. He doesn’t know any of the blocking. Or his harmonies. Yeah, his solos sound great, but still! It’s not fair to the people that have been to every rehearsal, or at least doing their ‘homework’ if they can’t make it.

So, what that means is that their solos will be divvied up amongst the cast and blocking will, of course, have to be altered. Fortunately, I don’t think harmonies will have to change too much, if at all. We haven’t blocked Act II yet, and we’re only just starting to rehearse the vocals for that Act. Act I has been completely blocked and rehearsed vocally, so I think we’re gonna do a run through again this coming Sunday. It’ll be a chance to alter the spacing due to the fewer number of people and also a chance to cement the things that aren’t changing in our tired, and overwhelmed brains. But, I think it’ll be fine. It shouldn’t be too bad at all – I hope.

So much DRAMA!!! I guess it’s fitting though…it is the theatre :)

Other than that, things are going along as normal. Work is great. I’m having fun tennis and I’m getting back to my form from when I played more frequently, which I’m really pleased about. I won the majority of my matches last week, going 2-1-1. I tied in my first singles match, split my 2 doubles matches, and then handily won my last singles match like 8 games to 2 or something ridiculous. And I never lost my serve in that match! WEIRD!!!

So, yeah, things are good. C took me out for dinner yesterday as a thank you for watching the dog and cat while she was in Nova Scotia last month. We went to a Chinese buffet. The food was alright – I was expecting worse. Nothing spectacular, but nothing that was really bad. So, yeah, I had a good time. C picked another restaurant at first, but N said that we should go to this one. N actually came along too, making inappropriate remarks and making us feel uncomfortable with her colourful comments and off-putting remarks as usual. After dinner, we went grocery shopping. N was surprisingly genuine, offering her cart to hold my groceries, as I only grabbed a basket. But, of course, she had to embarrass me and make inappropriate comments in public. For example, as we walk down the frozen food aisle, with many people shopping by the way, she says loudly so that everyone can, “You don’t even touch me anymore!” So, I walked away shaking my head.

I should have prefaced all of this by explaining our relationship a little bit more, as I don’t think I have documented it yet. It’s sort of a brother-sister, love-hate-hate-hate-love-hate-hate thing goin’ on. Early on N, realized that she could make blunt, socially awkward remarks around me and I would understand, or at least go along with it. Then that turned into her making mean, scathing remarks (in a joking way) directed at me and since I’m able to dish it back, we’ve gotten into the habit of saying how much we hate each other. Of course, we’re joking and we have a good time with it. She’ll yell “Shrew!” when I come out of my room, I’ll call her a ‘devil-woman banshee’ and we’ll give each other the skunk eye we pass each other by, that kind of stuff. She’ll say that she wishes I was dead and I’ll pull a Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son and tease her how I’m her mother’s favourite now. So, yeah…we have our fun and there are occasional genuine moments, but then we go back to our “normal” communication.

40-Love...

...well, more like 50 or 60-Love.

I just had to do a quick post about tennis last night. I was very pleased – I ended up winning half of my matches, played pretty well, blah, blah, blah…

Anyway (and this is where the real story begins), after tennis was over, 4 of us (me and 3 others) went for a drink. I didn’t really want to at first, but the place we were going to was close to where I live, so it’d be better than taking the bus since I’d be able to get a ride. Anyway, these guys are too funny. I’d say they’re at least in their late 50’s; one of them may be a bit older and a couple of them are retired. Really nice guys, but man…these are some dirty old men! But, I mean that in a funny way, not in the creepy way. Two of them are divorced, although I think one of the two has had at least two divorces. And the third guy is currently married, but on his third wife. So here I am, this 25-year old guy drinking beer and shelling free peanuts (and at this place you actually just throw the shells onto the floor), talking about where the best spots are to pick up older women! Don’t get me wrong – I had a great time! But it was just funny hearing them talk about which places have the 35+ women and which have the 50+ crowd. It started with one of them talking about how some of the past tennis champions still looked really good, like Gabriella Sabatini and Chris Evert, but then the conversation quickly turned to where they can meet women. Anyway, I just had to recount this short little anecdote. I had a good time, shared some laughs, ate some free peanuts, got a ride home – hopefully we can do it again

The Colympics

I must apologize AGAIN for the delay in coloblogging. My excuse: the Olympics. The Olympics were consuming my life. And many of you may know that I have to watch sports live, or else feel that the outcome may not be as favourable. It's kind of psychotic, but I feel that if I watch it as it's happening, my rooting and cheering makes a difference. Anyway…cut to me waking up at 3:30 in the morning to watch Canadians NOT wins medals! But that didn't deter me from watching, which is good cuz we finally started hauling them in by the end. I would come home from rehearsal, or tennis, and by the time I'd get home, it would be morning in Beijing, so it's just when events are about to start. So, of course I got wrapped up in the Michael Phelps run for 8 gold medals, the amazingness of gymnastics, lightning-quick Usain Bolt (pun intended), etc. But because I'd be up late, or wake up in the middle of the night, it totally screwed up my sleeping schedule, so… I'd have to nap right after work and before rehearsal, have a quick dinner, head downtown for rehearsal at 6:30pm and then get home by 10:30/11 o'clock, watch Olympics and then the whole cycles starts again.

So, that explains my delay in blogging. Work, nap, rehearsal/tennis, Olympics. That's pretty much all I've been doing. And somehow, I was able to squeeze in some gym time too =) Yes, I've actually been going to the gym – I'm just as surprised as you are. But things have been going well. Every now and then a group of us would grab a drink (or two) after rehearsal, or we'd go out on the weekend, so I've been able to have somewhat of a social life, despite the Olympics. And work is great too, so can't complain.

Also, I'll be going back to Toronto for Labour Day Weekend. It might actually be the last time I go back to Toronto before I finish go back after I'm done doing my baseline research here at the hospital. I may not even have a chance to go back for Thanksgiving cuz it's the weekend right before the show, so that means it's tech weekend. For you non-theatre people, tech weekend = boringness. That's when you have to go through every single lighting and sound cue for the show. By the way, the run of the show will be Oct 14 – 18, with a matinee on the Friday and Saturday. 7 shows in 5 days, singing 40+ songs, is gonna be tough! Anyway, this weekend should be fun. Not sure what I'll be doing specifically, but I'll just be hangin' with my friends and family. It'll also give me a chance to switch out part of my wardrobe to get some warmer things as we're gonna be getting into fall weather soon.

So, that's pretty much it. If I went into specifics from the last 2 weeks, I'd be writing until finger cramped up. I'll try to update a bit more frequently, which is more plausible now that the Olympics are over. However, the US Open starts today (which I'm watching right now) and in September, we're gonna be up to 4 rehearsals a week. Well…I'll try not to disappoint.