because i felt like it

I love me a good chocolate Frosty. I usually get a medium, with value fries. The fries, of course, are used to scoop the Frosty into my mouth, where they are then chewed and swallowed along with the Frosty, creating a perfect mixture of saltiness and sweetness, heat and coolness. Then, when the fries are gone, I use the less environmentally-friendly spoon to finish the Frosty.

I also love me some grassroots. We meet up at whatever park or amphitheater we've selected for that evening, and set up our funny little set that we built ourselves. Sometimes we warm up by playing "WAH," which we actually kind of suck at, but enjoy anyway. At around 7:29, an audience always seems to materialize, and then we start the show. It's unique every time - especially when it rains, or when the set gets blown over.

I love biking to work. I hope I can bike to work every day for the rest of my life. Its an invigorating way to start the day, feeling the sun on my skin and the cool morning wind in my face. Yesterday, I pulled a leaf off a tree as I rode past it, and it smelled sweet and fresh like summer. I held it to my nose and breathed it in for a good five minutes while I biked.

I also love running red lights when there's obviously no one coming.

I love watching a refreshing, original, insightful film for the first time.

I love staying up late, and rehearsals, and foot-lights, and masks, and making people laugh at work. I also love scaring the crap out of Rachel at work, but she hates it, so I only take the absolutely un-missable opportunities. And I love it when Jentrie falls through the door like Kramer with no explanation. Or when Trevor tells her to hold her cereal bowl level, because she keeps spilling milk all over everything.

I love the fact that I won a game of Werwolf last week, because it totally made up for the time that I tried to lie to a librarian and blew it. It started innocently enough when I couldn't remember my old address - the one on my driver's license - but it ended in a tangled web of lies that left me looking and feeling like a complete idiot. I laugh about it now, but it was not pleasant. So I'm glad I can at least lie to my friends.

I love drawing a deep breath, especially now that my allergy season seems to be over.

I really love taking a great picture, and making it even better in photoshop.

I love it when people comment on my status updates, and blog posts, and photos, because I like to know what they're thinking.

I also love throwing disc. If all sports were banned from the earth but one, I would want that one sport to be Ultimate Frisbee. It brings out the best in me. And, I once knocked Jyllian out of a tree with a frisbee from halfway across the park, so I'm apparently a pretty good aim. I laugh out loud every time I think of that.

I love sleep. The relief of surrender. The old-fashioned magic of dreams.

I love the feeling of being the one. The one whose little idea brought all these people together, on this night, in this place, to share this moment.

I really love meditation.

I should do this more often.

grassroots is my life

Check out our progress with the Grassroots Shakespeare Company! It's basically all I think about these days.

Hey, you know what, you should come see it! And become a fan on facebook to get our updates about venues and stuff.

You'll love this show!

FAQ

When are you moving to England?
September.

Are you excited?
Yes.

What is your wife going to do?
Whatever she wants.

go grassroots shakespeare company!

Sometime in January, I decided I wanted to put up a show--kind of a student project sort of thing. Being an English major, I hadn't really had time or means to do my own project before, so I was excited and nervous. I wanted to do The Revenger's Tragedy.

In February, I met with my good friend and colleague Alex Ungerman, and explained my idea. I told him I wanted to do an original practice show - no director, no full scripts, no designers, etc. Basically, a bunch of great actors throwing a show together for dirt cheap. And then, we could perform it... somewhere.

Of course he was intrigued and excited, so we became co-producers of some play (we eventually chose Much Ado About Nothing), and wrote up a short list of people we wanted to play with.

Then, this month, we decided to get people together for an audition. Somehow, we were able to convince twelve amazing actors and one great stage manager to join us. Now, the show is cast and rehearsals begin on the 25th!

If you'd like to read more about what we're doing, check out our blog, and become a fan of us on Facebook!


The awesome cast:

Joel Petrie
Don John
Jason Sullivan
Claudio
Jyllian Petrie
Beatrice
Alex Ungerman
Benedick
Becca Ingram
Hero
Mark Oram
Don Pedro
Bianca Dillard
Margaret/Verges
Davey Morrison
Dogberry
Kacey Keith Spadafora
Borachio
Kevin O'Keefe
Friar Francis/Balthazar
Daniel Joseph Anderson
Leonato
Maelyn Gandola
Ursula/ Sexton
Jordan Vance
Conrade
Tyler Harris
Antonio

Let the craziness begin!

cheap skates

"If the good Lord had intended us to walk, he wouldn't have invented roller skates."

-Mark Twain...or Gene Wilder...or Roald Dahl. Take your pick, they're all awesome.




Strap these babies to your toddler's feet and watch him or her experience the freedom of low-friction mobility. Also, keep the emergency room on speed dial.




When I put the words "cheap skates" into google's image search, these came up first. I can't imagine why. They look classy to me. Like, Classic Skating classy.




Apparently people have been obsessed with attaching wheels to their feet since well before the 1980s. Of course, this was widely seen as immoral, since it gave people social and physical mobility, and a very good excuse to skip church.




But if hooking your feet to a set of wheels doesn't thrill you, try strapping a couple of cleavers on and see what happens!




And if you, like me, thought that skates had already reached their full potential, think again. There are always going to be new and ingenious methods of ankle-breaking joy.

cheapskates

uncle walt

I celebrate myself and sing myself
Or, rather, I celebrate and sing you
For in you I see myself reflected, the part of myself that longs to know you,
That longs to remember you when time and space dissolve our chance encounter.

The part I see reflecting joy, discovery, and smiles;
Where jumping, exalting, clapping, laughing in the puddles and rain
The echoes of memory reverberate and live.

I thank the atoms to oblige my soul
With their precarious alignments,
Providing structure for the light within me
To inhabit and to run from; to shine on; to bend; cast shadows;
To reveal and invent and revise; to realign.

Shade means tree leaves,
Concrete walls,
The sides of buildings letting sunshine play its game of misdirection:
Feeling through cracks and peeking around edges
To conclude the journey of a billion miles in an instant on my face.

Rain means window panes,
Concrete walls,
Rivers of sky water tickling rain gutters,
Carrying leaves past sidewalks and stop signs,
My soul kneels in the puddles of this rain and feels the cool touch of ancestors.

You are in me and you are me,
You are my great, great grandfather, whose soul has found expression
On the wind,
And in the rain,
And in me.
And every supernova is a trillion souls expressing their last gasp of light,
Before concluding the journey of a billion light-years in an instant on my retina.

How full of light is the universe!
How full of hope!
How full of truth!
How full of birth!
How full of death!
How full of rebirth!

The light of a dying star touches every soul under its glow
And every soul touches it;
And when this world and all its life collapse into the Sun
There will be no place in the universe that cannot see the brilliant bursting of light
Expanding and stretching out into the kosmos,
Sending my light and your being into infinite points of life and light
Far beyond the fringes of imagination.

And you will remember me when I am across the universe,
And I hope to remember you,
But I can make no promises.

-Mark Oram

preoccupations

freckles

One time, a particular aunt of mine said I looked like the redhead on October Sky:


I prefer it when people say I look like Paul Bettany:

Even though he looks a bit confused here.

here goes