Parents Weekend

My parents came to Chicago this past weekend. They came specifically because I wanted them to see my sketch show. It was good to see them. I hadn't seen them since last Thanksgiving. They arrived Friday afternoon and we had dinner that night at Leona's. As usual, they peppered me with questions about what's going on in my life. My dad was also concerned about being entertained at the show. He wanted to get an exact sense of the type of humor he was going to be presented with before the show. It was sort of odd but I indulged him.

Dad: Is it one long sketch?
Me: No, a series of sketches. A sketch revue; a sketch show.
Dad: So like SNL?
Me: Sort of, but we don't do political satire or impressions of famous people. It's more like slice of life scenes but there's an odd twist that makes it odd, but still real.
Dad: Like what kind of twist?
Mom: You'll find out when we watch it.
Dad: I just want to know if I'll get it.
Me: I hope so.

They liked the show. It was good to have them see me in a show that I was proud of; both of the show as a whole and of my performance. Before this all they'd seen were so-so improv shows I'd been in. I'd never have an amazing performance in front of them. As such, I'm sure they thought I was mediocre and that I should probably focus on a real career rather than this acting thing. I'm sure they think of improv as a nice hobby. So it was good for them to see that I can actually act.

It was also good to hear their thoughts on the sketches. Parental feedback is always a delight because they're critiques always seem to come from an alien place. Mostly this came from my dad who didn't pick up on some of the more subtle moments of the show.

They also came to see a ComedySportz show the next day even though I was only doing the announcing for it. They liked it overall but my dad didn't like how they didn't show the final score at the end. This made him think the show was rigged. I assured him it's not.

Saturday during the day I rode the L out towards O'Hare so they could pick me up and go to a movie together. They've lived in the suburbs or butt fuck nowhere (Brainerd) for over 30 years and as such they fear driving in the big city. That's why I came out to the suburbs. They only drove into the city when they had to: for the two shows they went to see. I teased them about this but they didn't care.

Pitchfork 2008

I went to Pitchfork today. It was nice to go and some of the bands were cool to hear but I'd say overall the Festival on Sunday was average.

I got to the festival around 12:30, with definitely enough time to see the Dirty Projectors. I saw them live awhile ago with a friend and I liked them a lot more than what I heard of them on an album that was recommended to me by a different friend. At Pitchfork they were just as good as they were the last time I saw them live. They have an interesting sound. A lot of bands lately have both guys and girls singing the words together but with this band, they do it in an unconventional, almost staccato harmony style rather than the cutesy style other bands go for.

The food was good and well priced. Over the course of the day I helped myself to ribs, pulled pork, corn on the cob, pizza, beer, and water. Lots and lots of water. The sun was shinning and it was pretty hot. Not crazy hot like it was 2 years ago. But if you were in the sun, you definitely felt the heat. In the shade, the temperature was perfect. And towards dusk the temperature fell slightly enough to make it pleasant even if you were in the sun.

I saw only a couple of fellow improvisers and my friend Jon came later in the day with his girlfriend and friend. The festival is much better if you have a buddy. I was alone for much of the first half of the day. I'm fine with being by myself. I'm by myself a lot and I'm cool with it. You get used to it. But there are some places where the feeling of being alone is more pronounced. Concerts and festivals are definitely those places. So once I had friends to hang with, I felt much better.

In addition to the Dirty Projectors (good), I saw Apples in Stereo (okay), King Khan and his Shrines (interesting, but in a good way), Spiritualized (naptime), the Dodos (i liked them but their songs were SUPER long), and Bon Iver (okay). I wanted to see Cut Copy but there was some sort of delay at the airport they flew into so they were super late. I figured that meant they weren't coming so I left while this crappy pick-up band played. My friend Jon told me later that they did actually show up and play about 4 songs. So it sucked that I missed them but I was glad to be home after a long day in the sun.

Build-A-Bike Class 7

This week we dealt with shifters and derailleurs. It wasn't too much different from brakes although I had a heck of a time putting my shifter wire on the front derailleur with enough tension on it.

This will end up being my last class in the course. I've got a Sunday ticket for the Pitchfork Music Festival and I'm going to that instead of class. Luckily the last class is basically - from what the teacher has told me - odd and ends and other loose ends stuff. So nothing extra to learn, just extra time if you need it. I put my pedals back on my bike and test rode it around the area. It felt good and the brakes were extra tight. I hardly had to press down on the brake and the bike would stop.

It was a fun class and I hope to go back during the shop's Open Shop hours on Saturdays to mess around with the things I've learned on my road bike.

Two Saturday Parties

I went to two parties yesterday.

One was a backyard BBQ/party that was thrown to celebrate multiple CSz birthdays this week. To paraphrase, it was called the "Tamara, Megan, and Tara and NOT Rene have birthdays party." Rene decided to have his birthday party separate from the group. The backyard was Tamara's and it a great backyard; very spacious and grassy. Great for games like cornhole and donkey balls. I showed up way too early but I had a good time. I even took a nap during it to recharge. The grilled food was good, too. I had a come from behind victory against Tamara in donkey balls and I mopped the floor with Natalie in cornhole. Later I was part of a 4-person donkey ball team that towards the end eroded into a two-person team. We were beaten by the other team.

Towards the end of this party there was a pretty fun game of movie-title mash-ups. It involved giving the synopsis of two movies as if they were one movie. Then the guessers would have to guess the movies, which involved a bit of "Wheel of Fortune" Before & After category finesse. For instance, one that I came up with: "what's that movie where Gregory Peck defends a black man for a crime he didn't commit while Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn get into mischief?" "To Kill A Mockingbird on a Wire." Get it? It's "To Kill A Mockingbird" and "Bird on a Wire" mashed together because they share the same last/first word. In all honesty, my clue wasn't as coherent as it appears on this blog. And those of you that read this blog are probably reader's of Arnie's blog, and he's already summarized this game better than I.

The second party was a farewell party for my friend Dayna. I've known Dayna since our early days in college. We were in the same college improv group. She joined it, I believe, 6 months after I joined the group. She also moved to Chicago 6 months after I moved to Chicago. So our journeys through life has been sort of similar up until this point. Her improv experience in Chicago was a little rougher than mine and she'd been itching to move to NYC for some time. She'd been delayed by this horrible housing market. Luckily she got a profit on her condo and is moving to Astoria Queens. She's super happy to move and I'm super excited for her. I hope she was tons of awesome things happen to her in New York. Luckily I won't have to wait too long before seeing her again when PennyBear goes to NYC for the Fringe Festival. Her party was at Holiday Club and though when I arrived the gather was small, it quickly gathered steam and mass as the night wore on.

All in all, it was a pretty fun day.

Another Sneak Preview

I saw another sneak preview movie thanks again to my friend "The Ferg." This time it was Hellboy II: The Golden Army. This was another solid grade B movie. The visuals were amazing and the action and story were pretty good. There was a lot more comedy packed into this movie than the first one; perhaps a tab too broad and unrealistic at times, but still enjoyable. There were certain character choices that made no sense and I think that's why this movie isn't an A in my book. Though the crowd I saw this movie with - dorks and nerds - freakin' loved this movie. They were the kind of over-appreciative audience you'd love to get as a performer. I felt like I was at TJ & Dave, only instead of TJ & Dave, it was a movie.

CSz Banquet

The above picture is of Sam - who won 3 Howie Awards at the CSz banquet - and Martin - who wasn't nominated in any category.

I mostly wanted to mention that because it's a fun dig at Martin and because I know Martin reads this blog. How's it going Martin?

~~~

Now that CSz has its own theater again, we were able to celebrate how awesome we all are with a banquet. The banquet was last night. It was at Marcello's and we had a huge private room to ourselves. Everyone was dressed up really nice and everyone looked great. All the gentlemen looked distinguished and all the ladies looked radiant.

The food was good and the entertainment was great. Joey, Tara, and Rich emceed the opening presentation. It lovingly made fun of different aspects of the theater and it was a joy to be able to get all the jokes. After that was the awarding of the Howie Awards (the Oscars of CSz). Most of the people I voted for got the Howie award in their category. Afterwards a bunch of us went over to CSz for an after party. I got pretty tipsy. So tipsy, in fact, that I spent 2 hours drinking water at home to sober up enough to not get a hangover headache today. I succeeded but I'm absolutely exhausted today. I should have gone to bed right after work, but I didn't. See the next post for why.

Build-A-Bike Class 6

Brakes - easiest class so far.

We learned the differences between brake and shift housing. They gave us new brake cable and housing and showed us how to put them on our bikes. Got to use a tool called the 4th Hand, and learned how to center my brake pads. The instructions were easy to follow and I got done with tons of time to spare.

Next week: shifters and derailleurs.