Random Blathering... Just some miscellaneous thoughts today...
My cousin invited me over to his place Saturday night to watch the Ultimate Fighting Championship that he'd recorded off PPV. I didn't actually expect to enjoy it, I just like hanging out with him because he's a pretty cool guy. I still learn new things about him on a fairly consistent basis, even though I've known him for years...like, I didn't know he liked ultimate fighting (wasn't surprised by that, though) or that he had a concealed carry permit and owns several handguns (was a little surprised by that).
Anyway, I was surprised by myself...I actually really enjoyed the UFC stuff. It was reminiscent of boxing, back in the 70's and early 80's, in the heyday of Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammed Ali. I miss those days (Sugar Ray Leonard almost inspired me to start boxing).
Next thought--I SO wish I could reply to people who send me spam sometimes. You would not believe the number of weight-loss emails that hit my bulk folder (or, well, you might...) But I'd love to be able to write back to these guys and say, "Are you kidding? I'm six foot even and weight 140 lbs when I'm carrying my laptop...why the hell would I want to lose weight?" Or to tell the Viagra guys that I'm celibate right now...or the morons who started sending me Gevalia coffee offers that I pretty much despise the smell of coffee.
And why do they think that substituting numbers, or spelling the words differently so your email filters don't catch them, is going to make you suddenly want their product? They're already taking unscrupulous actions--why in the world would I decide to trust them with money?
My latest favorite--getting junk emails with dates on them that haven't even happened yet. I've been getting a regular stream of stuff from the year 2011, and used to get stuff from 2038. Now THAT's impressive. (No, I haven't actually read any of them, so I can't give you any news from the future.)
Final thought--I am SO bummed out that Weber State is opening MacBeth the same weekend we're closing Frightmares. I've got friends in the program there, and had word, early on, that they were running short on guys for their show. And I miss the stage...or, at least, the performance side of it. Even worse, they're taking the show to the Kennedy Center in March, I believe it is...I could have had a paid trip to D.C. if I was cast in it. But, unlike a lot of the kids we have audition for us, I've made a commitment and I'm going to see it through...I'm not jumping ship because a better offer suddenly popped up. Not that I don't look at better offers...if I can work them in around existing commitments, I take a LOT of them. But I've got a good reputation as the 'go-to guy' at Lagoon, and I'm not going to sacrifice that.
The problem with having a good reputation is that you need to live up to it.
It's my pleasure to present...
So the little guy has a name now...I spent a couple of days at Marla's place, watching him and puzzling over what would fit both his personality, and our traditions of picking names that embodied 'noble' traits which the horses could live up to and following the Norse/Germanic traditions. After a couple of hours on Wikipedia (tm) , the answer became clear.
His name is Wiklaf, named after the warrior that accompanied Beowulf to his final battle against a dragon--when Beowulf asked if any warriors were willing to aid him, only Wiklaf stepped forward, and after Beowulf was mortally wounded in the successful battle, Wiklaf carried him from the cave. That name stuck because this little guy is incredibly inquisitive and adventurous, especially for a four-day-old foal!
At an age when his sister...most of his siblings, for that matter...were busy hiding behind Mom, he'll walk right up to you in the paddock, provided you don't make too many sudden moves to startle him (I think only Beowulf, his half-brother, did the same thing, and I'm not sure but I think he (Beo) was a little older before he settled in so well). I had a list of five or six other names I was considering...but none of them seemed to fit.
I hope this temperament holds. His (Wiklaf's) mom is a somewhat contrary creature, who keeps us constantly guessing (even about when she's going to foal!) His dad's about as calm an animal as I've ever seen (I even got a chance to ride him for a few minutes while I was up there...he's BIG...taller at the shoulder than I am, and his head probably weighs half-again what I do...) They're both pretty smart...and it seems like smart, in horses, either means very challenging to work with, or very agreeable. I'm hoping for another 'agreeable'; because Tot's quite enough challenge for me as it is! ;)
But he is a cute little guy--
The Joys of Being Wanted...
Y'know, every time I think I've got things figured out at work, something comes out of left field and really throws me for a loop. Sometimes, it's good stuff...
We are doing, for the tenth consecutive year, the Zombie Mambo for Frightmares. It is the only show left over from when they started Frightmares entertainment...all the others have been retired, or at least put on the shelf for a little while. This is the show the park can't live without, despite our repeated efforts to get them to replace it.
In 2001, on the fifth anniversary of the show (and our first real attempt to put it on the shelf, only to be told that we WERE going to do that show), the directors decided the show needed a facelift...so I got to design a whole bunch of new zombie costumes, along with renovating a couple of the old ones. They were fun...the concept of the zombie costumes has, from day one, been that the living dead, in coming to life, kind of wandered through their respective graveyards and gathered up whatever caught their eye for clothing. This led, initially, to an incredible assortment of the most uncommon conglomerations of clothing items I think I've ever seen. When we re-designed them, the guys' stuff stayed very similar, but the girls got a major overhaul...and they went from being just a funky outfit to having some kind of theme, or feel, to them (the year we did that, the director had all the performers write up eulogies for their characters, including a name, where they lived, what they did for work, and how they died.) It was a lot of fun, and I was really excited for the chance to do it.
Well, here we are, five years later, and we've all but given up on retiring the Zombies...we don't pitch the show for our Frightmares lineup anymore, but we know that it will be part of the lineup by the end of the meeting. And it's still very popular--we know we'll have a big crowd gather around to watch it. Through the years, we've tried different tricks to make it new, or give it more life...changing some of the songs, adding a lot of extra props and tricks to the show, putting it on one of the stages instead of out on the midway...but, somehow, we always seem to come back to where we started.
Well, this year, our director decided the show is due for another facelift...a MAJOR one. The tenth anniversary of the show will see us going back to the original music and a lot of the original choreography (or, at least, that's the impression I've been given--I know the music detail is accurate); but the makeup and costumes will have a VERY different look to them.
I find myself in a position of being the only costume designer the director has offered a second job to (I made some costumes for a different Frightmares show last fall). Now, I was very pleased with what I did last fall, but I was never really sure just how well it sat with Ken. Apparently, he was really pleased, too...because we're also doing that same show again, and using those costumes--and because he came to me with the zombie costume job.
I'm really excited...this has been a very different project so far. In the past, doing a zombie costume was literally a matter of going into the costume closet, finding some items that had a fun look and were not likely to ever see use on our stage again (when you've been making costumes out of dupioni silk, the idea of going back to cheap lame (the material, not an adjective) costumes just makes you cringe), and piecing them together in such a way that we created some kind of costume (generally with kind of a non-specific period feel or some kind of exotic 'flavor'...) Ken doesn't like those costumes...he doesn't feel like there's any sort of unifying theme to them. And, to be frank, he's right...they look kind of period, but they don't look like the same period, or region, or anything of the sort.
This has been a project involving research, finding appropriate details for various costumes (what hat looks right with that jacket, yet is still 'dance-able'?), sketches, figuring out a color palette, shopping for swatches, modifying patterns...all stuff that I never figured, once upon a time, I'd have to worry about in my job.
I love it...I told Ken last fall that the hardest thing for me to deal with in working here is getting to the point where I feel like there are no longer new challenges. That's one of the reasons why Frightmares is my reward for dealing with the rest of the season...because so much of the rest of the season is just routine...wash for this show is this day, that show goes in next, the other show gets done tomorrow...Yes, I can patch that hole, No, I can't rebuild those shoes but I've got some others in storage that we can use instead...
So I REALLY love the fact that he's putting some tall hurdles in my path. And I'm VERY excited to see these costumes start coming together...the reactions to them, thus far, have been very good (although at this point, I'm still on the 'sketches and swatches' phase of the project...but I've been working on patterns and hope to start building next week when we go off full-time); the excitement other people have been expressing helps build my own excitement to get it done.
Just gotta figure out what I'm going to do with the old costumes...;) But that's a problem for the off-season...
It's a Boy!!!! (Wait, didn't Nick just write this one?)
Whew...after two months of telling people my horse was due to foal 'any day now', I finally have a new baby horse...born sometime between 1 am and 2 am (yeah, that's fast and sneaky for a horse). Ross and Marla had been outside at 1 am trying to figure out what was chasing their ducks around, and Tot didn't look even remotely like she was ready to give birth (aside from looking massively pregnant, which she's good at, because she's been practicing it for the last three months!)
At 2 am, Marla got up (she's pregnant, as well, and wakes up several times a night whether she wants to or not)--looked out the window just in time to see Tot turn around...and catch the gleam of the barn lights off the placental membrane, still hanging from the mare. So, they ran out, checked on the baby, spent fifteen minutes trying to get their cordless phone to work, managed to get through to me just long enough to tell me there was a foal on the ground, and then the signal cut out, so I had to call 'em back.
Tot's knack for being contrary or inconvenient doesn't stop at not giving us any hints she was foaling tonight...the last time I talked to Marla, she asked when would be the most inconvenient time for me to have a foal arrive. I thought, immediately, of the big paintball game I'm planning on playing in early next month--but, in actuality, this weekend is a doozy. I'm covering for people at work for the next three nights...so, unless I wanted to drive up, take a peek, and turn around and drive right back down again, the earliest I can get a look at our new arrival is Sunday.
But, let me tell you...what a relief!!! (I'm sure Tot feels the same way, for different reasons...) We'd been worried that she might be having twins...it's still an extremely remote possibility, but with the foal having been on the ground for well over an hour now, and no second arrival apparent, no continued hard contractions, and the foal being relatively large, all signs are pointing at a single birth. And that's a relief, too...not only is the waiting done, but it has ended without the worry of whether or not an animal that's designed to raise a single child would be able to raise two at once (twin births in horses almost always result in one of the foals being lost, sometimes both).
The foal is healthy, long-legged, well-conformed, and has done, so far, all but one of the things you want a baby horse to do after hitting the ground...and Marla's watching for the last one (also watching to make sure none of the placenta is retained, because that can result in really severe, if not fatal, infection for the mare...apologies to those of you who are browsing my blog while eating...) Now I've just gotta figure out a name for him--since the stud is Thor, we've been giving all the foals names out of Nordic or Germanic mythology. If anyone's got suggestions, I'll be willing to consider them...;)
Pictures will be forthcoming...the lighting is not particularly good for picture-taking out there, so Marla's going to take some tomorrow morning and email them to me. I'll have them ready for posting by the time I figure a name.
Ugh...okay...I've made my announcement. I'm going back to bed. G'night, all...
Coming about...Y'know, I was musing the other day about my situation at work, and realized that I've come nearly 180 degrees from where I was when I started there.
I went to Lagoon, initially, because there was an urgent need for my skills. That much hasn't changed (the skills they need have expanded, but I'm still very much in demand).
I went back, for the full-time season, because I loved the people I would be working with. When I started down there, I was very unsure of my ability to do my job (I'd never really learned to sew, just a few odds and ends that I picked up from Mom and what Nancy taught me in the Costume Shop...where I didn't work that often on sewing projects).
When our current Operations Manager told me he was leaving the middle of this month to go to law school, it put me in a reflective mood. He is, really, the last existing connection to my first season at the park. The directors, managers, and choreographers that were there when I started have all moved on (most to Disney, in one function or another). Alex had been a performer my first year, and was hired to be operations manager a couple of years later. All of the other performers are gone...their younger siblings are now taking their places, and some of them are preparing to move on (not necessarily to better things...call me biased, but having worked with some of the people going through the program, I actually consider BYU's Young Ambassadors program to be a step down--more performance opportunities, for larger crowds, but they've got a really poor work ethic...most of the people we've had to let go in the time I've been at Lagoon have been out of that program.)
So, now I'm in a position where I'm very confident in my job, and I love my work...but I don't so much care for the people with whom I'm working (other than the performers...) It's not that I dislike them--I just feel very ambivalent toward them, and don't necessarily trust them to come up with a strong show concept. There are a lot of people that have strong criticism for Mark and Christy, who were running the program when I started here; but you could never accuse them of not being dedicated to their shows. And I just don't feel that anymore...the passion for the work isn't there, or doesn't seem to be there...there are days that I really miss Mark coming in and going on at great length about the new show he was developing. And for all that it was a tremendous pain, I definitely miss the weekly memo of stuff from Christy that she noticed while watching the shows...hems that needed to be pressed, or shoes that needed to be polished more often. I really miss the fact that they would spend days and days, at the end of the Frightmares season, preparing home-made chili and making snacks for our closing party--the purpose of that party seems to have utterly eluded the current staff. It wasn't just a party...it was THEIR party, and the work they put into it was their way of saying 'Thank you for a great season' to the performers. That personal touch is gone...and I miss it a lot.
Maybe I'll have to write Mark and see if I can get his chili recipe...some traditions shouldn't be left to die, even if it takes a palace revolt of sorts to sustain them.
