Home for a Rest

So, after a very busy final week of shows in Charlotte, North Carolina, I am now back at home in Kitchener for some much needed rest and relaxation for the holidays.  The only thing I really want to say about Charlotte is that it really sucks to be sick away from home.  Food poisoning is never fun, and spending 24 hours sick as a dog in a hotel room, and then trying to call a show in that condition is something I hope I never have to live through again.  On the bright side, life would have been a whole lot more unpleasant if we had been on the bus for those 24 hours...but the show must go on.

While I am home, I am looking forward to spending as much time as possible over these holidays with The Thief, my family, and catching up on all the goings on around here that I have missed out on while I have been out on the road.  I also hope to spend at least a couple of days locked in my condo totally ignoring the outside world. 

Until next time.

The Walking Dead Mid Season Finale - In Atlanta! FAIL!

So life on the road is all swell and good, because this has been an easy week and since we left Austin, all I have been looking forward to is the Mid Season finale of The Walking Dead.  Icing on the cake, we are actually spending Sunday night in Atlanta, where they do a lot of the filming.  Awesome, right?  Wrong.  Our hotel has no AMC, and I can't get a decent internet connection to download the episode.

Total fail.

So now I have to avoid Facebook and Twitter until I can find out what happened...

First World Problems...I know.

This doesn't count as a blog post...just a rant.

I'll check back in once I finally get my hands on the episode.

Austin, Texas

Dipping our feet in the frigid waters of Barton Springs Pool on Nov 28th
 

  I know that most of my close friends know this, but for those of you just along for the ride here's a personal secret for you...I HATE flying.  To be honest, it's more than that.  I actually LOATH everything to do with airports...security, the tedium of waiting for flights, having zero control over the entire process.  But more than anything, I hate being strapped into a tin can 30,000ft above sea level, the entire time feeling like my life is in the hands of a stranger.  But, I love to travel, and often I have to travel for work, so flying is a necessary evil.  Truth: My trick...I try to never do it sober.  A double Jack & Coke and a couple of Gravol and I am good to go.  If I can be asleep before we even get off the runway, so much the better.  Of course this recipe doesn't work on show days for obvious reasons...but this was not the case last Sunday when we took our very first flight of the tour from Detroit to Austin, Texas, with a short layover in Charlotte North Carolina. We eventually landed safely at our destination, which I consider a win.

A few of us had friends and family flying down for the week, as this was the perfect week for a visit: only 2 shows over 5 days in Austin, and 2 whole days off inside that week, including American Thanksgiving.  We all took full advantage of the free time to explore everything Austin had to offer despite the unseasonably cold (for Texas) weather.

Over the course of 5 days we explored the bars & restaurants of 6th Street, ate some genuine Texan cuisine at Stubb's BBQ, wandered "The Drag" alongside the University of Texas at Austin (Go Longhorns!), Explored the local western culture of SoCo (South Congress) including Allen's Boots, and eventually made our way to Zilker Park, home of the beautiful Barton Springs Pool, a 3 acre spring fed swimming hole located right in the middle of a tributary of the Colorado River.  Free to the public on Holidays ($2 for non-residents otherwise) the pool is a vast public swimming hole with a natural (read: fish & plant life inhabited) bottom that's water stays at a brisk 68 degrees year round.  Since it was Thanksgiving (Nov 28th) and about 12 degrees outside, we only dipped our feet in the water, but there were a few brave souls enjoying a leisurely swim.  Proof that Texans are nuts! 

 



Here's an Arial shot of the pool to help you understand the scope and size.  Everything IS bigger in Texas.



We also had a company meal for American Thanksgiving at Threadgills organized by Technical Director and Company Manager. Good times were had by all.  With both the Longhorns and The Cowboys winning their Thanksgiving day Football games, it was quite the day to be rooting for Texas!

 

Of course, we are on tour with a show, not on vacation, so we also had a couple of performances at the beautiful Long Center for the Performing Arts.  The crowds here in Austin loved the show, and were very generous with their applause. 

 

I know for a fact that Austin has already replaced St. Louis as a few peoples favourite stop on the tour thus far, myself included.  This has definitely been a week to remember.

 

I am actually writing this post from my hotel room in Crocket Texas, where we are scheduled to perform in just a couple of hours.  A tiny little civic center with no wing space, available flylines for our lighting gear, and only 21' wide, tonight's show is guaranteed to be interesting to say the least.

 

But more on that next time! 



 



Meet Me In Saint Louis - One Very Busy Week!

Time for another Tour Update! This week we rolled into Saint Louis after a trio of long travel days with stops in Pittsburgh and Indianapolis. Indianapolis deserves mention as I got the opportunity to have an incredible meal at St. Elmo's Steakhouse. The city's oldest restaurant, founded in 1902, they know how to prep a steak!
We arrived in Saint Louis on Wednesday and the group immediately scattered to begin exploring the city. We were staying at the Westin directly across from Busch Stadium, a perfect central location for all of our planned expeditions. After dinner of smoked ribs, turkey and brisket at Joe Bucks, I crashed pretty hard. Thursday was a free day and I had big plans. After exploring the city around the hotel in the morning, a group of us took in the Saint Louis Zoo in the afternoon. I was really impressed with the facilities, especially consider that there is no admission charge for the public. It is entirely funded through government grants and private donations. While we didn't quite have time to explore the entire 19 acres of exhibits, I did get to see a large percentage of the animals that they have on display. While not as impressive as the Toronto Zoo, it is obvious that the staff and community take great pride in their facilities.
Thursday night was the highlight of our week. I had organized and arranged tickets for 15 of us to see an NHL game at the Scottrade Center. The St. Louis Blues were hosting the league leading Colorado Avalanche. The Blues group sales department cut me a great deal on the seats. We were in section 103, up and to the left of the visitors net, 14 rows off the ice. By far, these were the best seats I have ever had at a hockey game, and they were only $75 per person. The simple fact that average people could afford to see the local NHL team play, and not have to mortgage their house to sit in the lower bowl was a shock to a Leafs fan like myself. The hockey game was absolutely explosive. The Blues ran up the score 7-3, and every time an Avalanche player attempted to start a fight, hoping to shift the momentum, the Blues enforcers beat them to a pulp. It was amazing to cheer for a team that actually had the potential to win for a change!
As an added bonus, one of my cast members had an in with the Blues Assistant Coach, Brad Shaw, and was able to get us backstage guest passes, which allowed us the opportunity to meet the Blues, get autograph's, shake hands, and then get a full tour of the locker room and training facility. Pretty amazing stuff! The entire staff of the Blues were great with us, indulging our wide eyed excitement at this behind the scenes look into their organization.
Friday was also packed full of entertainment as I booked in on tours of both Busch Stadium, home of the 2011 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals, and Anheuser Busch Brewery. Both tours were both informative and a lot of fun. One gave me the opportunity to stand behind home plate on Major League Baseball stadium, the other gave me free beer. Win, win. Also the supply and demand facts that I learned on the Budweiser tour made my head spin. For example the American Mid-West drinks 2.5 million cases of Budweiser product every 12-18 hours. Also for an individual to drain the contents of one of their massive beechwood aging tanks you would have to drink one beer an hour for over 127 years. FYI Budweiser has over 300 of these tanks on site at this brewery. That is a lot of beer. My favorite fun fact from Busch Stadium was the cost of entry to their exclusive Cardinal Club. These are special reserved seats directly behind home plate that also grant access to an exclusive club house restaurant before and after every regular season home game plus priority parking. Cost: $12,000 per season, minimum purchase 2 seats
($24,000), minimum contract 10 YEARS (total cost: $240,000) Sweet Jesus! If I ever change careers I am going to work for a professional sports team! I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that we also played 5 wonderful shows at the beautiful Peabody Opera House, a 3000 seat auditorium staffed by great people. I took the time to get to know a few of their staff over the course of the week (including the Head of Marketing, Production Manager, and General Manager) and everyone was really phenomenal to work with.
Other fun anecdotes: While we were in town we also shared our hotel with the Carolina Hurricanes and the Bosnian National Soccer Team. The NHL stars were very low key, not so much for the soccer players. Mobs of soccer fans swarmed the hotel hoping for autographs and photographs, necessitating added police and private security. At one point late one night I ended up on an elevator with about 6 of the soccer players, after having been told all day that we were not to be allowed anywhere near them by their private security force. I'm not a soccer fan, so I couldn't care less, but after their head of security waved me onto the elevator I kind of wondered what the big deal was. I also discovered a bar with more than 80 varieties of beer on tap, apparently the most anywhere in America. Be sure to check it out if you are ever in town. The Flying Saucer.
It was hard loading onto the bus this morning to leave St. Louis, but more adventures await. Next stop: Wisconsin, land of cheese...?!? Check back soon for more updates.

We Survived Hell Week!

This week was all about numbers: 9 shows, 7 venues, 9 days, 5 states, 20 hours on the bus. Welcome to touring. One-off performances, where you load in, do a show, or sometimes two, and then load out the same night, take an undeniable toll on your body, and your mind. This week it got real. It was a whirlwind. This is what I remember touring being like. I am not going to bore you with a list of where we were, or what the theaters were like, in fact I couldn't if I wanted to at this point. The entire week is already a hazy indistinct blur of scattered images of calling the show, riding the tour bus, vague hotel rooms, only to lather, rinse and repeat the entire process again, and again, and again. What I can tell you, is that the show is in good shape, the audiences are loving it, and the cast are in good spirits. Oh, don't get me wrong. We are all exhausted, but we have all more or less learned to adapt to make the most of the creature comforts that we have. For the cast, learning to sleep on the bus during our long drives has become a marketable skill. Personally, I prefer to take advantage of the quiet time created by everyone else's naps to focus on the administrative paperwork that goes with being a touring Stage Manager. If I can be done my reports, logs, and emails by our morning rest stop, the rest of the ride is suddenly mine, to curl up with the latest Chuck Palaniuk novel, shoot douche waffles on my PS Vita, text with all the folks at home or otherwise relax and unwind until we arrive at the next venue.

It really is the little things that bring you comfort during a week like this that make all the difference in the world. Things like Venti Mocha Frappachino's, bus jeans, comfy hoodies, Skype, Netflix, clean laundry, a bottle of JD in your suitcase, all serve a very important purpose. The small pleasures that they bring make you forget how tired you are in the moment and focus on what is going right, right now. Yes, we spend all day on a tour bus, and we wake up in a new hotel room all most every day, but we are never bored, and this company is never unhappy. They have figured out that as long as you can control the little things in life that matter to you, you can get through anything with a smile on your face. Add all that to the fact that each and every one of us is out here doing what we love, and it becomes a pretty incredible experience.

We have been a little spoiled up to this point, with two or three day sit downs at every venue. We have had the opportunity to explore, and to get to see the sights in the cities we've played. That was not the case with hell week. All there was time for every day was literally: Get up, get on the bus, arrive, do a show, drink a pint, fall asleep, depart for the next city. The end. But all of our hard work is now paying off. As I write this post we are on the bus headed to Pittsburgh, where we have the night off, on route to Saint Louis. Our next show is Friday night...4 days from now. 4 days of rest and relaxation between shows. Almost unheard of in this industry. Our only responsibility is to be on the bus on time each day so that we can continue our journey. Heaven.
Until next time!
Check back soon for more updates.

Field Trip! Wrentham Village Premium Outlets!

So, we are right in the middle of what I have been calling "Hell Week", and today we caught a little break.
Hell week consists of  9 shows in 7 venues over a span of 9 days, most of them in different states, which means that we are on the bus every morning to do a show in a new theatre pretty much every night.  On the upside, many of these cities have thus far been reasonably close  together, and to be honest it is already getting hard to keep the cities straight in my head.

Today, because we only have a 2 hour drive between New Bedford MA, and Springfield MA, Keith, our Rock star Company Manager arranged a little excursion to help pad the time between when we had to check out of one hotel and when we could check in to our next.  The tour bus dropped us for a two hour shopping trip at the Wrentham Village Premium Outlets here in Massachusetts.  Up until this point, I have always thought that Walmart trips while on tour were highly entertaining - everyone rushing off to acquire all the goodies that they need to make life on the road a little easier in a strict one hour time limit.  Today was that same sense of urgency and frantic excitement multiplied by a thousand degrees.  All most  everyone immediately scattered to scour the stores for the best deals.  Some of the cast were on personal shopping missions, snapping up great deals on hot fashions for themselves, while others, myself included, focused on early Christmas shopping for all the folks back home.  Banana Republic, Coach, Kenneth Cole, and Gap were big hits!

People were frantically bargain hunting right up to the wire, spending per diem cash hand over fist.  It was awesome. 
The best part of the entire experience was the little fashion show that happened at the back of the tour bus as we were about to hit the road.  Everyone eager to show off their new acquisitions, and see all the great finds everyone else had snapped up.

It was a fun distraction from Hell Week, but now we are back on the bus rolling through the rain for our next stop. 
Check back soon for more updates.

Oh, Canada! Godspell hits the East Coast of the Great White North.

The journey continues...when we last left our heroes, they had one final matinee to perform in New Haven Connecticut, before moving on to our first Canadian stops of the tour. 
The matinee was a success, and from what I have been told by the crew, their first load-out was relatively painless.  We were also asked to sign the wall at the historic Shubert Theatre, a tradition that I have seen a few times at various venues on the road.  Kudos to Charles for finger painting us a great piece of signage, that will now become part of the legacy of the Shubert.  At this point our Crew also moved off of our coach bus onto their sweet Rock Star sleeper bus, their new traveling home away from home.

After the show and dinner in New Haven,  the cast and band piled onto the coach for what I think was an amazing night drive up to Portsmouth New Hampshire, our stopping point before crossing back into Canada.  Now, I can't speak for everyone, but I had a wicked time on this bus ride because I snagged one of the rear "lounge" spots for the ride: to clarify, we have removed some seats from the coach, and at the very back we have two sets of seats that have been turned 180 degrees, and installed collapsible tables to form what I loving refer to as "the lounges".  They are perfect spots for someone to work on lines, write show reports, have a group card game, or just stretch out.

 Initially I set up my laptop to write my matinee show reports and then once they were sent, I settled in and relaxed for what was one of my favourite rides thus far of any tour.  I watched about 6 episodes of Parks and Rec, and then when that got old, just set my music collection to shuffle and watched the world flow by.  It was a very Zen happy little bubble.

Upon arrival at our hotel most people promptly made their way to our very first hot tub of the tour! Any hotel with a hot tub and a pool is always a hit after a long day on a tour bus.

The next day we had a full day of travel to Fredericton New Brunswick, where we had the evening off.  Our company manager and I promptly found a great spot to have a wonderful meal in town.  Brewbaker's was magnificent.
Our two  shows in Fredericton at The Playhouse were well received, and I met some great people on the local crew who are friends of friends that work out here fairly regularly.  We swapped a few war stories and shared some laughs.  It was a not so subtle reminder of exactly how small this industry really is.

After our Wednesday evening show, the touring company organized an impromptu pre-Halloween party in one of the banquet rooms of our hotel.  Hilarity ensued, and I don't know that many people got much sleep.

We also had the next day (which coincidently, happened to be Halloween) off in Fredericton, so many of us took the opportunity to see the sights, sample the local micro brews, and experience some of the local culture.

 I explored the banks of the St. John River, following a great hiking trail along the shore of the downtown core, before staring a little pub crawl, and eventually having another fantastic meal, this time at The Blue Door.  Some of the cast caught an evening movie at the mall by our hotel, but I opted for something a little more daring and caught the opening night performance of a local community theatre groups production of Evil Dead: The Musical.  My thoughts on this production are also available here in a previous post.

Friday we had a leisurely 90 minute ride down the highway to our next stop: St. John New Brunswick - NOT to be confused with St. John's Newfoundland - Ivan.  

The Imperial Theatre here in St. John is a beautiful space that celebrated its centennial this year.  A gorgeous venue with another fantastic local crew, both of our shows here went off without a hitch.  Many of us took advantage of our free time in town to take in the local attractions, like the famous -  if wildly misnamed - reversing falls, the local brew pubs (Like the High Tide and The St. John Ale House), and many of us decided to do the Maritimes right and had a big Lobster & seafood dinner at Steamers Lobster Company down by the Wharf.  Dinner was a huge, butter smeared, success.

Tomorrow we bid farewell to Atlantic Canada, as we continue our journey back into the US with a matinee performance in Orono, Maine. 

Tomorrow also marks the beginning of what I have come to think of as our first hell week - 7 different venues in 8 days.  I am sure we will all come out the other side unscathed, but it will be a shock to the system after such a smooth, sedate first few stops.

Check back soon for more updates!

Evil Dead: The Musical

While I was looking for a way to fill a Halloween evening off here in Fredericton NB I stumbled across a poster advertising a local community theatre production of Evil Dead: The Musical.  I have heard a lot about this show over the years, and friends of mine were actually in the original Toronto production, but I had never seen it.  I thought it would be a hoot to score a $20 ticket, and I wasn't disappointed.  Presented at a cute little theatre at the local francophone community center, the show featured a quirky local cast, that may not have had professional talent, but they certainly had a lot of heart. 

With its very own blood splash zone in the front row, this show focused on the gory, campy off beat humour that made Bruce Campbell and The Evil Dead trilogy of movies cult classics.  Blood packets and Hudson sprayers full of fake blood doused the audience throughout the show, much to their obvious delight.

With songs like "What the fuck was that?" and "Do the Necronomicon" the show kept tonights small audience laughing throughout.  Some of the cast may not have had the vocal range to belt these rollicking tunes the way they were written, but I will give them credit for their attempt.  They certainly were committed.

The show certainly had its share of technical difficulties, missed mic pick up, miss-cued sound effects, wigs falling from cast members heads, lighting levels that left the cast in near total darkness...the list goes on.  It was a little bit like being forced to watch the final performance of Waiting for Guffman.

Despite the technical elements of the show being a propper Tour De Farce I want to give full kudos to the 2 young ladies who played Cheryl and Shelly, as both of them had the pipes to sing their respective roles, and knew how to act their way out of a wet paper bag, qualities unfortunately not shared by the rest of the cast. 

Regardless, I laughed pretty hard both with, and at, the cast, and the show provided a solid two hours of entertainment.

Opening Night!

Hard at work, now calling the show from backstage!

Our adventure continues!  After an easy travel day that included our first meal stop at a Walmart so that everyone could stock up on food and supplies, we arrived at our first performance destination, New Haven, Connecticut, home of Yale, on Thursday night, and quickly settled in to our luxurious suites.   Life on the road is always easier with nice hotel rooms, especially ones that have full kitchen facilities. 

The cast and band immediately arranged a pot luck dinner, because they are just that sweet.  A little later on Charles and I headed downtown with Kirsten, our swing tech, and John, our audio tech to the Theatre district for a substantial meal.  As the crew had to do their first load in call at 7am Friday morning, it was an early night.

Friday morning at 10am four of the cast and myself were scheduled to appear for a Q & A session at a local performing arts high school, arranged by the educational outreach division of the Shubert Theatre.  The five of us had an absolute blast sharing our stories with the students and faculty. They were such an engaged, generous audience that I sense all of us came away from it feeling even more pumped about our Opening Night performance that night. The local media was also in attendance, and we actually made the local paper & online section of their website.  Here's the link: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/the_downbeat_and_the_lowdown_delivered_to_co-0p_actors/

After the Q & A session I caught a ride over to the historic Shubert Theatre to see how the load-in was going, and see if I could be of any assistance.  The remainder of the cast had the afternoon free to explore the town and rest up for our big night.

The view from the 2nd balcony! 
There were a lot of stairs to climb to get this shot!

The crew has just about finished the load in
at this point.

The view from the stage.
I couldn't get the 2nd balcony
in the shot.

 The Shubert Theatre here in New Haven Connecticut was built in 1914, and has hosted premiers of many landmark American plays including Oklahoma and A Streetcar Named Desire.  It really is a beautiful space with a wonderful staff, and a great local crew.  By the time I arrived on Friday afternoon, our touring crew was pretty much done load in, so I helped out where I could, mapping out dressing room signage, and prepping the space for the casts arrival. 

We got our very first on the road sound check, all 15 minutes of it, and then it was the cast's 1/2 hour call.  On the road you almost never get a lot of extra time to prep for a show...it's just a fact of life, and we all have to work within our limitations, while striving to deliver the absolute best possible show to each and every audience.

Our Opening Night performance had it's share of minor technical bumps and hiccups, but the cast were on fire!  The zeal and energy that they bring to this show every night truly is inspiring, and the audience loved it.  We received an immediate standing ovation for the curtain call.
Post show our producers had arranged an after party for us at a local pub, and I can guarantee that a good time was had by all. 

Saturday was a double show day, and I took the time to explore the Yale Campus between shows.  What an incredible experience!  The campus is simply breath taking, and I wish I had had more time to explore all of the nooks and cranny's of this stunning educational institution. 
  It really was something worth seeing.  I also hit the campus bookstore and picked up a wicked new Yale sweater that immediately makes me look smarter :)

Here's a few of the photo's I snapped of the campus, they hardly do it justice!

 

 

I have also started uploading some of my tour shots to my Facebook Photo Album, which is a tradition I started the last time I went out on the road - They should be accessible under the Godspell Tour Album.  Enjoy!
Tomorrow we perform our final matinee here in New Haven, before rolling out for our next destination - Fredericton New Brunswick.  Check back in a few days for another update!

I Blame Charles...

So the big day has finally arrived.  Day one of our 13 week North American tour of the Drayton Entertainment Production of Godspell.  The Tour is being produced by TMA/ Moonglow Productions out of NYC, headed by the same people who produced the tour of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels that I had the opportunity to go out on a few years back.

This time around it is 11 Canadian Cast Members, 2 Canadian Stage Managers, 5 American Crew, and our American Company Manager who I am hoping will keep us "between the mailboxes".

We boarded the bus at 9:45am in Cambridge ON, and after what was a teary goodbye for some of our cast, we set out on our very first travel day.  Our only real goal today was to make it across the border into the U.S. and then travel about 50 percent of the way to our first venue - New Haven Connecticut.  It was smooth sailing the entire way to our first stop.  We breezed through customs in record time - 40 min from arrival at the border to departure.  Not too shabby for a bus filled with a mixed production company of Canadian Cast and American Crew.  No fuss, no muss, no worries, and no delays.  It was pretty slick.

As far as being out on the road, I was actually surprised at how quickly I found myself falling into my old touring habits.  I grabbed the same seat on the coach that I had the last time I went out (It really is all about being at the back of the bus), and settled in very quickly.  I have found that on the road you have to rely on technology to keep you entertained...tablets, e-readers, laptops, and portable gaming systems are your best friends, and keeping them charged is a primary concern!  My tablet and PS Vita got a solid work out today, as we passed through Ontario's wine country, and down into New York State.  The number of sets of headphones in use on the bus is very encouraging.  This group has already figured out that it is up to them to keep themselves entertained while they are on the bus.  We also put on our first group movie after the lunch break, but to be honest, I have no idea what it was because I was deep into Uncharted: The Golden Abyss on my PS Vita at the time.

I was also amused by a few of the casts ability to nap on the bus on day one.  Regardless of all of the excitement and energy that they had when we left Cambridge, a few were able to stretch out and catch a few z's before we even hit the border.  No question, they will adapt just fine to life on the bus.

We arrived in Syracuse NY in time for dinner and didn't waste any time making plans.  After a healthy stop at the hotel bar, the majority of us wound up catching a free shuttle down to Syracuse Suds, in the market district for dinner.  While the craft beer was far from stellar, the food was decent, the live jazz was fun, and the company was second to none.   From there, small groups peeled off to do whatever they wanted, but the gang I was with, which included my unflappable ASM Charles,  started a little pub crawl that took us to four or five local establishments, every one of which was more interesting than the last.  After sampling more than our share of the local craft brews, and some fresh mussels, We ended our evening at a fantastic hole in the wall bar called Al's which had the biggest wall of liquor that I have ever seen... which was impressive in and of itself.  (We're talking 15' high x 36' long folks!) Also, when I asked the bartender if they had a bottle of  Crown Royal Cask #16 on hand, he readily acknowledged that they had it, and was happy to pour me a $15 ounce.  HEAVEN. 

(I really do need to pick up another bottle of that while I am out on tour to bring home as a special treat for myself.)   On top of the great bourbon/scotch selection, there was also a hip trio playing at Al's and we stuck around to hear them play for a good 35 min... reminded me a lot of Death Cab For Cutie.  A very mellow sound with lot's of interesting instrumental combinations.
After walking home - about 1.54 miles - BTW a big Thank-you to iphones for keeping us from getting totally lost in strange new cities - we went our separate ways.

Tomorrow is another straight travel day before we load in for our first show on Friday night.  I smell a friendly poker game in my future.

So, now I'm on Godspell...and soon headed out on tour!

Life has been very busy lately, as I suddenly and unexpectedly changed shows mid-week, bidding goodbye to my compact little guy group musical review show and jumping onto a sit down run of Godspell here in Waterloo that found itself in need of a Stage Manager 24 hours before its first public performance due to a medical emergency.  Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I jumped in to help at a moments notice and made the show happen. I actually ran 3 full shows on day 1, a personal first! (one student matinee of Godspell, and 2pm and 8pm performances of Legends of Harmony).  Calling  9 shows as opposed to the standard 8, plus standard rehearsals makes for one hell of a long week, especially when you tack on the added stress and pressure of an Opening night.
I have to extend a big thank-you to the production teams for both shows, as they really pulled together to make my transition a smooth one for both shows.  Everyone here at Drayton Entertainment really are rock stars who are amongst the best there are at what they do.  It is always such a pleasure to work with such outstanding individuals!  Everyone involved in both of these productions is total A Team material.

So despite turning my life a little sideways for 5-7 days, the upside of this new assignment is that I will now have a much better handle on the show when I head out on the road for a 13 week North American Tour. 

I had been contracted for the tour a few weeks back, and am really looking forward to getting to go out on the road for another adventure abroad.  I am especially pumped about tour dates in both New Brunswick and British Columbia as I have never been to those Provinces, and I am looking forward to getting to see some more of our beautiful country.  We are also headed to plenty of city's in the States that I haven't ever been to, so that will be entertaining.

Also, a big shout out to Charles, my ASM on the Road, he is one of my favourite people, and I trust him to have my back and keep me out of trouble, just as I will be looking out for him.

Obviously there are a lot of people that I am leaving a home that I am going to miss like crazy, but it's only a 13 week engagement, with a couple of decent hiatus's so it's not really like I am gone for very long.  I will always have the carrot of home dangling in front of me, keeping me motivated on the road.

I plan on using WWWWD to keep everyone posted on the entire tour experience, with lots of photo's on facebook, so please come back often after Oct 22nd for all the updates.

The Cottage

A few weeks back I was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to spend a couple of days relaxing up at "the cottage" with my cast and crew. A spacious, modern, winterized home on the shore of Lake Simco, "the cottage" is owned by the aunt and uncle of the MD of my current show and was a perfect destination for a little get away for the members of our production company. Seven of us were able to make the trip, and a great time was had by all. Our MD proved to be a wonderful host, and an incredible chef, making all of our meals from scratch.
I was the first to brave the waters of Lake Simco, swimming right off the dock. I was actually pleasantly surprised at the temperature, considering that is was mid September. At one point two locals actually canoed past by me, as I stood chest deep in the frigid water and looked at me like I was nuckin' futs.
Watching theatre folk be sportific is always entertaining, and the impromptu volleyball game we had was no exception. We spent more time chasing the ball through the hedgerow into the neighbours yard than actually playing volleyball.
Yours truely hit the booze a little hard on day 2, I may have started with a cold beer at 8am, and graduated to a gin ceasar by 11am, and double fisting beergaritas by 1pm. Long story short I put myself to bed by 6pm, where I stayed until 7am on day 3. Lesson learned...when pacing oneself on an all day bender it is important to take breaks for food, and the occasional glass of water.
Despite my inherent stupidity, I had a great time bonding with my cast, and it was a much needed release from the stress and pressure of a very busy summer season.

Cards Against Humanity Hiaku's

Penis Envy
Praying The Gay Away
Frolicking.

God
Laying an Egg
The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

The KKK
Ethnic Cleansing
Puppies

William Shatter
Bill Nye the Science Guy
Vigilante Justice

New Age Music
Hot Pockets
Woman's Suffrage

Sentinels - This Should Be Good!

If you stuck around after the credits at the new Wolverine movie, this will be old news to you, but this photo, tweeted by Bryan Singer the director of the upcoming movie X-Men: Days of Future Past, confirms that Trask Industries will feature prominently in the plot of the new film. For those of you who haven't read the comic books, the CEO of Trask Industries: Bolivar Trask is the creator of the Sentinels. Giant mutant hunting robots that pack an incredible arsenal of weaponry, and have the ability to adapt and neutralize most mutant powers, various incarnations of the sentinels have been a staple villain in the comic books for years. With any luck, the film, which features some returning members of both casts of X-Men: First Class, and the original X-Men trilogy, will stay fairly true to the Days of Future Past, comic book plot line. Which I will keep to myself, so as to not spoil anything.
Here's a gratuitous photo of Hugh Jackman on set because Wolverine is my favourite. X-Men: Days of Future Past is scheduled for release May 23rd, 2014. It will be worth the wait!

The Last of Us - Game Review

There is no doubt in my mind that Naughty Dog has once again guaranteed itself another game of the year title with their latest release. The Last of Us, which I completed for the first time last night, is unquestionably the best game to hit the PlayStation 3 since Uncharted 3.
A stealth survival game set amidst a zombie apocalypse, The Last of Us, follows Joel, a middle-aged, hardened smuggler and Ellie, his foul mouthed young ward, on a year long journey across the remains of the desolated United States. Visually, the game is stunning. The art designers, and visual artists of Naughty Dog have really outdone themselves on this game. Gameplay takes you through a variety of settings ranging from squalid inner city urban, reclaimed residential, and pristine wilderness. Each stage literally looks better than the last.  Here are a couple of screen shots I was able to find online.

The controls are intuitive and easy to pick up, especially if you have played the Uncharted series. I was also a big fan of the inventory system, and the fact that you have to collect various components before crafting the items that you need to survive. What I wasn't a huge fan of was the fact there was a finite limit on how much of each type of item you can you carry at any one time. Even though you are carrying a backpack, you can only carry 3 of each type of standard component item, and 3 of each crafted item as well. While this certainly adds to the "survival" aspect of the game, sometimes it was really frustrating to see items available to be picked up, but not have the room for it in my inventory.   This applies double to the limited amount of ammo you can carry at any one time.  In a zombie apocalypse you better believe that I would be carrying extra shells in my socks if that's what was necessary. However, for the purpose of a survival game, I do understand that managing limited resources challenges players to find alternate solutions for each encounter.
The story is also very multi-dimensional, and well crafted.  Nothing is ever quite as it seems, and all of the characters have multiple motivations for behaving the way they do. Initially Joel doesn't want to be saddled with the burden of transporting Ellie, but eventually they form a very strong bond, which enhances the story significantly.
I have already published a post that deals with the specifics of the unique zombie outbreak that Naughty Dog has crafted, which you can find here: http://wwwwd.blogspot.ca/2013/06/the-last-of-us.html
My first play through took exactly 17:25:45, on Normal difficulty, and I only managed to track down about 2/3rds of the collectable items, so there is lots of re-playability, especially of you aim to try and platinum this title. I really can't say enough good things about this game, as it is so impressive on every level. Pick up a copy for yourself, and loose yourself in this immersive world. One play through won't be enough, I guarantee it!

The Serpent of Venice - Possible Cover?

Christopher Moore retweeted this photo yesterday, the first look at what may be the new cover art for his next novel, The Serpent of Venice. Another satirical spin on a Shakespearean tale, this novel sounds like it will be an alternate examination of the Bard's tale of Shylock and Portia. I loved Fool, Moore's first novel in this genre, which was a re-imagining of King Lear. It just so happens that The Merchant of Venice was my introduction to Shakespeare's work, and it remains one of my favourites. Filled with dynamic characters and lots of intrigue, The Merchant of Venice seems like an ideal candidate for Moore's special blend of whimisical satire and irreverant wit. Definitely something to look forward to, this novel is slated for release on April 22nd, 2014.

Chuck Palahniuck's Novel Snuff gets a new Title for the Italian Edition.

Apparently Italian Publishers aren't so subtle. Chuck Palahniuck just tweeted this cover of the Italian edition of his novel Snuff. A tongue in cheek look at the adult film industry, Snuff is a raunchy, racy, riotous tale that is a seriously fun read. Here's the photo, which features the new title for the book:

By renaming the book, publishers kind of missed the whole point of the book. The sex, which features prominently, is really just a back drop for the rest of the story. A reflection of the porn industry itself, the reader is supposed to become desensitized to the copious amounts of sex, it isn't the focus, it is merely a means to an end. At least that's my take on it. Regardless, it's fun to see another culture's take on this fabulous piece of literature.

Carpe Diem, and all that jazz

Generally speaking I am a firm believer in the concepts of living every day to its fullest and seizing every moment - real Dead Poets Society stuff. "Oh Captain, my Captain", and all that jazz, but as as of late, as Summer winds down I often find myself silently wishing whole days away. Increasingly often I find myself lost in long silent moments of reflection where all I want is a return to the routine that is my life at home, or at least, my life when I am working close enough to home to enjoy the comfort of my own bed every night. While I can certainly recognize the attraction of this return to the routine, what I have a hard time reconciling is the desire for this Summer to be over. It has been a great summer season, filled with interesting challenging artistic opportunities at work, wonderful family time, and lots of fun creative experiences with new and old friends.
I suppose that some small part of me believes that a return to the routine will make all of my current cares and concerns vanish, but ultimately I know that each and every new day brings with it both a whole host of new challenges to overcome and a collection of perfect moments to be treasured. The important part is recognizing those moments for what they are and not letting them pass you by.

Wil Wheaton's Advice For High School Graduates

Surfing the interweb today I came across this image . Apparently, Wil Wheaton was once asked to autograph a recent high school graduate's year book, and rather than just scrawl a John Henry, Wil left these little gems of advice. See for yourself:
Great advice for anyone looking to pursue a post secondary education, and  #4 through #8 are also great general rules for life.
I think it was pretty cool of Wil to drop this kind of wisdom on his young fan, and even cooler of Wil's wife to share this photo with the interweb.

Fight Club

I am currently re-reading Chuck Palahniuck's Fight Club, and one of my co-workers snapped this candid photo of me deeply engrossed in the book.
This is hands down my favourite novel, and I love it more with each re-read. Chuck weaves a darkly beautiful tale, packed with wit and scathing commentary of our consumer based society.
It is a book that resonates with me, both as a man, and as a product of my environment.
This book triggered my love affair with Chuck's work, and it is the crown jewel in the career of an accomplished writer. I fully plan a future post that covers my thoughts on this novel at a later date, but I felt the photo deserved to be posted now.

"I am Joe's Raging Bile Duct." - Chuck Palahniuk - Fight Club

Ben Affleck will play Batman in the Man of Steel sequel

The interweb went crazy yesterday when Warner Bros. announced that Ben Affleck would don the cowl as the caped crusader in the 2015 sequel to The Man of Steel. Alot of fanboys are hating on Affleck, labeling him 'too vanilla' to play the Dark Knight.

Personally, I am intrigued by the casting choice. Affleck has the suave, cool grace to pull off Bruce Wayne, and the physical size to be a very imposing figure in the cowl. If I met that square jaw dressed as Batman in a dark alley, I would think twice before I picked a fight.
For all the fanboys who think Affleck will just be another George Clooney, or Val Kilmer...I would ask, did you expect genius out of Heath Ledger in the role of the joker? He shocked the acting world with this dark portrayal, even winning the Oscar for best actor posthumously. I know I didn't certainly expect that out of the star of 10 Things I Hate About You. My point, leave the guy alone, and wait to pass judgment on his performance until after he has actually had a chance to give it. You never know, he may surprise you. The as of yet untitled sequel is scheduled to hit theatres in July of 2015.

Port Blake Conservation Area has a beautiful beach

My quest to find a better beach took me to Grand Bend today. Let me be honest, I am not, and never have been a fan of the main beach here in Grand Bend for anything other than people watching. It is just too crowded with dippy young tourists, who, while they may provide eye candy and the occasional laugh, tend to clutter up the beach with stupid, and nobody needs that. Plus, the entry to the water is marred with a swath of rocks and small stones. I prefer soft sandy beaches that gently gradually slope to the waters edge. Icing sugar sand that would do the Dominican's rum soaked beaches proud are what I am after. I know it's alot to ask, especially from Southwest Ontario, but I have high standards for my beaches, and that is never going to change.

My ultimate destination today was the beach at Port Blake Conservation Area. Located just north of Grand Bend, the entrance to Port Blake can be found just before the Waterworks Treatment Plant on Highway 21. As a tip, continue past the conservation area entrance, and park on Waterworks Road (The west terminus of Highway 83) to save yourself the $5 parking fee.

Pristine and clean, this beach is way better, and less densely populated than the main beach. It is also worth mentioning that the sand is much better quality, soft, and smooth as opposed to large grained and coarse, it is one of the best beaches I have found in a while. With the added bonus of picnic pavilions, BBQ pits, and public washrooms, this beach is a great hidden treasure, and one that I am shocked that I hadn't discovered until now.

Ipperwash Beach is a dump, and its not going to get any better.

Growing up on the shores of Lake Huron some of my fondest memories include days spent at the beach at what used to be a beautiful sandy stretch of coast line at Ipperwash Beach. My family has had a vacation property not far from the water for many years so I am very familiar with this stretch of beach. With clear water, no rocks to speak of, and lots of fine sandy beach to stretch out on, it used to be a great place to spend a summer day.

Sadly this is no longer the case. There is a 6' stretch of debris and sharp broken shells at the water's edge, washed up detritus that mars what then once beautiful coastline. Beyond that is a 8' band of sludge, hidden under dirty, cloudy debris filled water that you have to wade through to make your way out past this mess, to the "cleaner" water beyond. Having taken my young daughter down for a day of beach fun, I couldn't have been more disgusted. To add to my disgust, the local native band that "owns" the public beach has children handing out pamphlets stating that as of 2014 they will begin charging for both parking and walk on admission. Walk on admission at a public beach? What the fuck? The only reason some stretches of the beach were clean was because private land owners had dragged the beach with private tractors, and one of the mandates the natives propose is a total ban on private tractors on the beach...so the mess is only going to get worse.

It is infuriating to me to see what used to be a beautiful public beach degrade to such an awful cesspit through absolute neglect and a lack of care from the people trusted with its upkeep. I will soon be looking for a new beach to call home.

Optimus Prime Gets A Face Lift

I just pulled this image off of a fan website for Michael Bay's upcoming Transformers 4.

Optimus Prime has been totally redesigned with a very 2nd gen feel, and I think I like it. Despite generally being a traditionalist when it comes to my transformers, I feel like the series needs to keep up with the times, and continue to showcase interesting new visuals to maintain its fan base. Apparently this 4th installment has an entirely new human cast, which is a shame, really only Shia Labouf had to go in my mind, all the military personnel that appeared in the first movies were solid. Josh Duhame was a personal favorite. The plot is still very much a mystery, but the interweb is still abuzz with the fact that Mark Whalberg signed on without ever having seen a script, or even knowing the name of the character he would be playing. I'll see this in theaters, if only to hear Peter Cullen's magnificent voice acting as Optimus Prime. It takes be back to my childhood, and that us a pretty incredible feat.

The Wolverine - Movie Review

I just got back from an early release screening of The Wolverine, and I couldn't be happier. For the most part, they got it right. Hugh Jackman reprises the role of the adamantium clawed title character once again, and he is simply awesome as Logan. I really believe that Jackman has become the heart of the X-Men franchise for Marvel, as his all of his appearances throughout 6 feature films have been fantastic. The guy looks the part, and his depth of range, adds a credibility to the character that draws the audience into the story. Logan is an enigma that we can't help wanting to more about. For once, this film chooses to focus on what lies ahead for Wolverine, as opposed to his past. The first Origin movie made the mistake of trying to tie up his origin story with a pretty little bow, and wound uo being campy and over the top, where as most of this film doesn't feel like a super hero movie. And, as much as I love the genre, that is a good thing.

The story begins with Wolverine in a Japanese POW camp during World War 2 where he saves the life of a Japanese Officer, Yashida. Flash Forward to present day. Wolverine is living like a hermit in the mountains, with a Mountain Man beard and wild hairdo. We soon learn that these events are taking place after the death of Jean Gray, so after X-Men: The Last Stand, which is important an important factor. Logan is still haunted by the death of Jean, and has chosen to remove himself from society, rather than be forced to continue a struggle for which he has lost his heart.
He is soon tracked down by agents of Yashida, who is now on his death bed and finds himself whisked off to Japan to pay his final respects. I was honestly expecting a lot more focus on the samurai code of honour that Wolverine follows, but instead the film bypassed that in favour of getting right down to the meat of the plot. Yashida's grand daughter, Mariko, is being threatened by the Yakuza, and Yashida himself wants to offer Logan a deal that seems to good to be true.

The action scenes in this film are fast paced, brutal and gritty. Wolerine isn't afraid to pop his claws and fricassee his opponents. After all, he is the best there is at what he does, and what he does isn't very nice.
There are a couple of sub plots that nicely tie together the uniqueness of Japanese culture, and the whole mutant influence factor, all of which lead back to the central focus, which while easily mistaken for the relationship of Logan and Mariko, is actually Logan's struggle with himself, and his acceptance of the great responsibility that comes with his particular gifts.
. I was actually kind of surprised at how little combat there was in the movie, typically wolverine is on the front lines slugging it out with the baddies, but in this film, due to certain circumstances, Jackman doesn't have the same kind of violent drive that has characterized his appearances in the other X-Men films. Don't get me wrong, there are some great fight scene, it just isn't as big a hack and slash film as I was expecting.
I was happy that The Silver Samurai made an appearance, even if I wasn't entirely thrilled with exactly how he was dealt with... I really don't want to give away too many spoilers, but I can't help myself from saying that fans of the series will need to stick around for the teaser scene buried in the credits. It is a real gem, and it gives away some key information for the Upcoming X-Men film Days of Future Past which hits theaters next season. There is one revelation in particular that will make fans of the series VERY Happy. Let the count down begin!

Kitchener/Waterloo Ribfest And Craft Beer Show...Take 2

Okay, for those of you that missed this years live tweet of the Kitchener/Waterloo Ribfest and Craft Beer Show, here is the live stream in all its glory. I may fix a few spelling errors, since I am a little more sober now...but for the most part, this is exactly how it first appeared.
The Big Day has arrived! Kitchener Ribfest and Craft Beershow! I will be live tweeting the event again this year, starting around noon!
Last year I won the sexy Broil King BBQ from 107.5 Dave FM...Who knows what could happen this year at Kitchener Ribfest and Craft Beer Show.
It has officially started! We are in a cab enroute to K/W Ribfest and Craft Beer Show.
It is on! We have arrived at K/W Ribfest!
Wristbands acquired! First beer of the day, Muskoka Brewery Summer Weiss. Light and crisp. A perfect start to the day.
Beer #2 Muskoka Brewery Cream Ale. Nutty with a smooth finish. High Tide just took the stage.
Beer #3 Steam whistle Pilsner. Hard to go wrong.
Kat, Charles, and I are in line for some Boss Hog's ribs. #perfectday
Beer #4 Nichol Brook Headstock IPA. A tart start with a delicious finish. A great patio beer.
Boss Hog's Ribs were delicious. Next stop, more beer.
Just saw a guy in a Boston Pizza Rib Camo shirt. Had a great char. #Respect #howawesomeisthat
Sent Charles on a beer run for Beer #5 Nichol Brook Naughty Neighbor APA. A nice crisp beer with nutty undertones.
Beer #6 Stone Hammer Pilsner. Fresh and Light, another perfect summer beer.
Sunshine, good friends, great food, cold beer - K/W Ribfest is a hit!
Jessica is a lady. 'Nuff said.
Beer #7 Wellington Brewery Trailhead Lager. Another crisp, clean, nutty, delicious beer.
I am now officially entered in the @DaveFM draw for a new patio set/deck/ and BBQ. Come on Golden Horse Shoe!
Kat Just brought me Beer #8 Big Rock Grasshopper Wheat Ale. Delicious, smooth, and clean.
Charles is waxing poetic on Beer Brewing...Amazing. Beer #9 Lake of Bays Crosswinds IPA. A nutty aftertaste with a hint of awesome.
Beer #10 Flying Monkey Stereophonic Wheat Beer. A solid take on a favorite style. Flying Monkey Brewery deserves full credit for this.
Charles and Jess are fetching ribs from Blazing' Big Rig while Kat and I hold down the fort. Also Alec @gobowash just arrived to join the fun.
Apparently it is Stereovision, not Stereophonic. My bad. My apologies to Flying Monkey.
Blazin Big Rig Ribs were great. Now for more beer.
Beer #11 Waterloo Brewery Pilsner. Crisp, clean, and tasty.
And the ring comes off! Damn! #Hailstorm, #Infidelity.
Beer #12 Big Rock IPA. Even better than the Grasshopper Wheat Ale. Rich and full bodied with just a hint of a nutty finish.
Beer #13 Double Trouble Brewing Prison Break Breakout Pilsner. They brew out of Guelph and have a fantastic beer.
@gobowash is now also live tweeting today's fesrivities. The City Boys from Guelph just finished their first set
. Beer #14 Amsterdamn Blonde poured my a brunette. An Amsrerdamn good beer. #kwbeerfest #perfect day, Beer #15 Flying Monkey, Smashbomb IPA. - Petrfectday.
The Batman beer utility belt is in the works. TM.
Beer #16 Stonehammer Dark Ale. Rich and Dark with a hint of chocolate undertones.
Next on the agenda, the Pepsi taste challenge! WHAT! That isn't beer...
Beer #16 Muskoka Brewery Twice as Mad as Tom IPA. A heavy IPA, with a full bodied flavour. Not for the weak hearted.
(It was at this point in the day I got a couple of different instant messages, one from as far as Halifax, informing me that I had listed two Beer #16's, so I corrected the count.)
Beer #18 Mill Street Belgian Wit. Best in Show. Hands down. Fantastic.
Thank you Lindsey McCormick for keeping me honest...18 beers deep.
In line for ribs from Kentucky Smokehouse. May be slightly hammered...hard to tell ;)
Kentucky Smokehouse "Our ribs are more tender than your mama's love.". Wow. Just Wow.
Boss Hog's takes a clean sweep. KWbeerfest.
Beer #19 Nichol Brook Bolshevik Bastard. Dark and creamy. Not my usual style, but a solid beer.
Just want to thank everyone that made it out to K/W Beer fest today. #aperfectday.
Beer #20! Lake of Bays River walker. A clean fresh taste for my penultimate beer.
Ribs from Kentucky Smokehouse were delicious, but Boss Hog's takes the cake, er, trophy.
Beer #21 is the Amsterdam Pilsner. Surprisingly, it tastes like beer. I think...;)
(This takes us right to 6pm, the end of the festival. At this point we walked back to a friends place to continue the party. I would like to assure everyone that no one in our party was driving.)
#106 Strange Street...the party continues.
#hashtag has worn out its welcome. #hashtag. Hilarity
What an awesome day with amazing people. For the rest of you, mark it in your calendar for next year. #kwribfest
#ohnoyoudidnt
#tacofarm World's best name for a lesbian bar ;)
#takeyourpantsoff...
-Thus ended our day, with all of us being safely delivered home by the worlds best designated driver. High points of the day included having multiple tweets re-tweeted by the breweries, and Impact Events Group, who organized the event. We all had a blast, and can't wait to do it again next year.

Board Game Breakdown

This post has been a long time coming...It has actually been over a month since I had a chance to sit down with friends and play test some of their amazing collection of board games. Many of which I had never encountered before. Hard core gamers will laugh at me, as apparently some of these are staples, but below are my first impressions of most of these games.

The Walking Dead: Okay, so as a huge fan of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead in all of its various formats, I figured the board game would be pretty awesome too. While it is great to see the original artwork, and the premise is sound, the game mechanics are a little lack luster. The whole idea of the board filling with walkers as you vacate spaces is cool, but your marker moves so slowly that it takes forever to make any progress. And rolling dice to combat walkers isn't very exciting. I need to play this one again, just to see if it was over complicated because of our unfamiliarity with the rules.

Egizia: Based around the formation of early Mesopotamia, Egizia is a worker placement style of game that focus's on the acquisition of resources and then transforming those resources into early Egyptian buildings in order to score points. I think we actually played 3 games of this before we had all of the correct rules firmly established, but once we did, the game really started to tick along. There are a number of strategies that in retrospect, I can see implementing, but those first few games I tried to focus on keeping my workers fed, so as to not loose points every round. While this game is apparently out of print, it is one that I enjoyed playing.

Small World: Sort of like a fantasy version of Risk, without the tedious hours of game play, Small World has simple game mechanics, with lots of intricate specific exceptions that can be assigned to the various races that are vying for world domination. I enjoyed the fact that there were various game boards based on the number of players involved with the game, and the random power/race assignments can create some very interesting game play dynamics. Bivouacking Trolls stands out as a combination that stomped my forces flat a couple of times. The whole concept that you can take a race into decline, and choose to attempt to reconquer territories with a second, or even third army is an interesting mechanic as well. This is a game I intend to one day add to my collection.

Survive: This little gem is a race against the clock. Atlantis is sinking, and you need to attempt to evacuate your forces to neighbouring "safe islands" through shark, and leviathan infested waters before the volcano on the island erupts, killing all remaining forces, and ending the game. The game mechanics are simple, and fun, as not only are you evacuating your forces, but you can control the various antagonistic elements and sink their boats, or have sharks eat their swimming survivors. We played this game a half a dozen times, and even when one of the games degraded into "everyone gang up against me", it was a blast. This is a game that I will definitely be purchasing for myself.

Pandemic: A cooperative game, where the players work together to stop the spread of a number of deadly diseases, this is another game that I feel I need to play again in order to truely appreciate. Since I was just learning the rules, and didn't have a great grasp of the mechanics, I felt a little bit led, while having not much to contribute to the scenario. With a better understanding of the various player abilities, I believe I would have a better grasp of the severity of the implied situation, and really be able to think 2-3 turns ahead and implement a startegy as opposed to simply reacting to new developments each round.

Carcossone: A turn based tile game of Medieval land development, this is another game I have known for years. Its simple mechanics make it easily accessible to new players, and it is quick to play. Another staple in my collection.

Castle Ravenloft: A simplified version of Dungeons and Dragons, Castle Ravenloft pits a cooperative party against the undead minions of a randomized castle Ravenloft,utilizing miniatures and dictated by a layout map. While the party attempts to complete various scenarios, find the item, destroy the target, etc, they are assaulted by unrelenting wave after wave of undead minions. My first real complaint about this game is how incredibly unbalanced it is in the games favour. It is very easy to get separated from your party, and easier to get systematically surrounded and wiped out before ever coming close to completing a scenario. Also missing is the sense of accomplishment associated with traditional D&D. In D&D you typically defeat the monster, loot its treasure, gain experience points, level up - gaining new and improved skills, and then continuestaging the process with a new adventure. With Castle Ravenloft, there is no rewards to speak of, simply a continued grind through the dungeon until you achieve yournight scenario goal, or die trying, either way ending the game. Apparently there are other D&D based adventure style board games that aren't so heavily unbalanced, and I think that I would like to try one of them before returning to Castle Ravenloft.

Settlers of Catan: This just happens to be one of the games that I was very familiar with prior to these sessions, having owned a copy for many years. It has become very mainstream, and it is apparently most people's introduction to European style board games, and it remains a great game to share with new people. Even the Big Bang Theory has dropped a "I've got Wood for Sheep" reference. That never gets old.

Lords of Waterdeep: While I have already written a post about my first experience with this game I thought it was worth mentioning that Lords of Waterdeep quickly became the game of choice with this particular group of gamers. We must have played in 15 times in 3 weeks, including a 5 player speed round game that lasted exactly 35 minutes. These sessions are the reason that I now own a copy of both this game, and the brand new expansion set Scoundrels of Skullport.

There you have it. Hours spent playing great board games with a fantastic group of people. I can't wait for our next session!

Phobias...We Don't Need No Stinkin' Phobias...

Okay, so a little back story may be required for this one. I work as a Manager for a pretty big theatre production company here in Ontario. If you don't know what a stage manager does, thats okay...most people haven't got a clue. Basically, once a show is up and running, it is my responsibility to ensure that the artistic vision of the director is maintained, and that all of the technical elements of the production occur at the proper time. Lights, Sound effects, scene changes, video projections, cast entrances, even wardrobe and props all fall under my umbrella. Typically in Canadian Theatre, the Stage Manager is set up in a booth out front, watching the show. The picture above will give you a decent idea of what I see during a performance. I am also in direct contact with all of the backstage crew, and any Assistant Stage Managers working backstage via clear com headsets. Using the clear com, the stage manager leterally "calls the show", giving standby's and Go's for all of the required cues. Typically, if all goes well, the shows runs exactly the same each and every performance.
So now that you have had a brief lesson on how I do what I do, we get to the point....today not everything went according to plan...
Right after I had given a standby for a cue sequence, what I consider to be a giant spider crawled out from under my prompt script and scuttled away behind one of my computer monitors. Other than being a little freaked out, this initial discovery didn't bother me too much...while I don't like spiders or big creepy bugs of any kind...he seemed content to leave me in peace. I announced his arrival over headset, much to the enjoyment of my backstage crew, and promptly forgot about him. In the rural setting I am working in right now, bugs and creepy crawly's in the booth are basically an every day occurrence. It wasn't until a few minutes later when the little bastard reappeared and startled my video operator, Kim, that things went down hill in the booth. He quickly disappeared again, and suddenly both Kim and I were on high alert. She wouldn't put her feet on the floor, and neither of us would rest our arms on the consoles that we need to operate for the various cues in the show. Things got worse a moment later when he suddenly scuttled out from underneath the lighting board and made a creepy quick bee line for my right hand. I caught sight of him out of the corner of my eye and shrieked like a little school girl, jumping about 4" in the air straight out of my chair as I did so. Now, I have no issues admitting that I am a grown man with a fear of spiders, and while I recognize that I have no actual logical reason to fear a common garden variety spider the size of a nickel, it was such an intense and guttural reaction that I literally didn't have an ounce of control over my response. My backstage crew of course died laughing, and who can blame them? What ensued in the booth was likely pretty funny to eavesdrop in on over clear com, as Kim and I attempted to track down and kill this 8-legged menace before he could terrorize us further. We literally spent the rest of the show in full alert, attempting to chase down and exterminate the little bastard between cueing sequences. We failed. Miserably. Every time we would locate him, he would scuttle off on his 8 creepy little legs before we could send him for a dirt nap. I say we, but really it was mainly Kim trying to squash him while I attempted to keep the show running smoothly without provoking subsequent attacks. I am certain that, other than our backstage crew on headset, no one in the audience or onstage would have any idea about the epic battle being waged in the booth during the performance.
The wiley little bastard eluded us for the entire show, but luckily, at the end of the show, we were able to turn on the lights and flush something out of hiding from under my chair, where Kim quickly stomped it flat. My only concern is that the creepy crawler that she squashed may not have been the spider who had eluded us throughout today's show...in which case, he could be back tomorrow, bigger and meaner than ever....and if we are really unlucky, he will bring all his creepy little bastard friends...
I think I am going to bring a hammer along to work tomorrow to keep in the booth...just in case.

Dispicable Me 2

A friend and I took The Thief to see the latest installment of the Dispicable Me movie franchise on Sunday, and it was an absolute riot! The first thing I want to say is that this movie looked absolutely incredible. The animators have chosen to work in a rich, bold, vibrant palette of colour that just pops right off the screen and into your lap. I can only imagine that this holds even truer when seen in 3D. For a cartoon, it really is quite breath-taking, but I am gushing...so back to the other elements that make this film so good.
Steve Carell returns to voice Gru, the now reformed super-villan, who has hung up his plans for world domination to care for his three adopted daughters. Fans of the first film will appreciate the growth of the parental bond that has formed between Gru and the girls, it is very obvious that they love him dearly, and he will do anything in his power to protect them from harm, and the various evils of life, and prepubescence. Carell is a very funny guy, and the writers of this film do a great job of writing dialogue that works for his portrayal of the super villain.
The plot is fun and quirky, an entire secret lab has been stolen from the north pole, so the Anti Villain League (AVL) recruits Gru to help them track down the culprit. Gru turns them down at first, having settled down and converted his secret minion-filled laboratory into a jam and jelly factory in an effort to turn over a new leaf, but quickly realizes that he misses the excitement and sense of accomplishment of his old life. He is partnered with an Agency field operative named Lucy, voiced by Kristin Wiig.
Some of the best dialogue in the film comes from the interactions between Gru and Lucy, but the big laughs are once again supplied by the adorable minions. The sight gags that they bumble their ways into are absolutely priceless. I don't want to give too much away, so suffice it to say that hilarity ensues, again, and again, and again.
I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard at a family friendly feature, and the most amazing part about it was that my 3 year old daughter was laughing right alongside me. Mind you, we weren't always laughing at the same thing...but that is part of what makes this movie so great. There is plenty of content geared at both the adults and the children present so that there really is something for everyone.
Do yourself a favour and find a child to take to see this movie. Their laughter will keep you young, and that is well with the price of admission.

Lords of Waterdeep: A D&D based Board Game

Not that long ago I had the chance to attend a board game night and sample a bunch of really cool new games.  Today I had the opportunity to revisit the game that I was actually most impressed with.  That game was Lords of Waterdeep.
Set in the Forgotten Realms Campaign setting of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Lords of Waterdeep  dispenses with  all of the role playing elements of D&D in favour of a very slick, multi-turn based round centric play system.  You don't need to know anything about D&D to pick up and enjoy this game, but if you are a fan, you will appreciate a few of the finer points.
Sidebar: I played alot of D&D in Elementary and High School.  Make that that ALOT.  It was actually Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition, and all most exclusively set in The Realms, and while I preferred to play, I DM'd most of the campaigns that I was involved with.  I haven't played in over 12 years, mainly because I can't find a group of people with the same interests and availability.  So now that we have established that I was (am) a huge nerd, with legit nerd street cred, back to Lords of Waterdeep.

The game mechanics work like this:  Each player controls a faction of a secret society within Waterdeep, which faction you choose has no impact on game play, other than deciding the colour of your DnDeeple.  Each player also randomly selects one Lord Card that grants bonus's at the end of the game for completing specific Quest types. At the beginning of the game you have 2 agents that you can use to generate resources and complete quests.  In order to complete quests, you must first generate a supply of resources to add to your pool.  These resources include Gold, and hirelings.  Specifically you are trying to recruit followers of the 4 basic character classes: Warriors, Wizards, Clerics, and Rogues.  Each class of hireling is designated by a different coloured cube.  Resources are earned by assigning an agent to a specific location on the game board.  After an agent has been assigned and the resources collected, you have the option of completing a quest, assuming that you have the required resources.  There are different categories of quest cards, including Piety, Commerce, Warfare, Arcana, Skulldugery, and each Quest requires different resources to complete and offers different rewards.
Agents can also be assigned to build new buildings which add new and interesting elements to the game play.
There are also Intrique cards which shake things up a little bit, adding a fun and often surprising dynamic to the game play.

The artwork of the box, game board, and various cards are done by the same folks who design game supplements for the current edition of D&D, so it all feels right.  As someone who has been very immersed in Realms Lore over the years, I appreciated the short blurbs on all of the quest cards, many of which tie into well known plot points from the various Realms supplements that have been published over the years.  Of course, a player who was new to the genre wouldn't really be missing anything, as none of this affects the actual game play.
The game continues for 8 turns, and the winner is decided by a combination of total points acquired, bonus points awarded by the players secret lord, and the amount of minions, and gold remaining at the end of the game.  Today we played with 5 players,  2 of whom were new to the genre.  Everyone picked up the game play mechanics very quickly, and I think we all had a lot of fun.  Each time I have played this game I have found myself taking a very different strategy, and I enjoy the fact that, much like D&D, the game changes dramatically based on the actions of the people you are playing with.
This is a wicked board game that I will be adding to my personal collection very soon!  Especially since a little interweb research tells me that they have just published a 6 person expansion.

World's BEST commercial

A Friend showed this to me earlier today.

Watch it!  Laugh!

Cringe!

It's SOOO worth it!

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=95c_1371654375

So, I am obviously not very urban...

If you look very closely at the photo above, you will see a very pale woman suntanning on the peak of an ashphalt roof. It just so happens that this is the view that greated me out the backdoor of the theatre I am currently working at. My two immediate questions for her would be: "What the Fuck are you doing?"Quickly followed by "Jesus Christ, aren't those shingles HOT?". Don't get me wrong, I am all for a little natural colour in the Summer, but this seems extreme. I mean, does she not have access to a back yard? Or a public park or beach? How desperate must she be for that tan to decide that laying on a bath towel on the peak or her ashphalt roof is the best way to achieve it. I am not sure if you can tell, but she has actually lugged 4 bricks up onto the roof with her to help keep the towel from blowing away. Since there is no antenna tower on the house, we all assumed that she has a ladder in the back-yard for easy access. It seems like a pile of work to go through for the sake of skin cancer. I just don't get it. I may be a hick from the sticks but city folk are weird.