Tag Archives: blog post

Wrist to Hitchcock

It is Alfred Hitchcock’s birthday, August 13.  Steven and I had hoped to watch an Alfred Hitchcock movie when we got home tonight, but it seems that will not work out.  Is it a Wrist to Forehead Sunday?  I fear so.  Never mind why; explanations are tiresome.  We won’t worry about that but concentrate on the famous director’s birthday.

I’m thinking this is only true in a sense.

I picked this picture of him to share, because I liked the saying on it.  This is not a rule I follow when I am directing or acting on a stage, by the way.

Nevermore, you say?

The Birds is one of our go-to movies, especially on a Sunday night.

Love the poster art.

Rear Window, however, is arguably our favorite Hitchcock movie.  The casting, the acting, the script, everything combines to make an entertaining whole.  I say “arguably,” because there is also my beloved Rope.  However,  I cannot find any photos of Rope, so we won’t talk about that movie right now.

We won’t talk about anything much, as it turns out.  It is SO Wrist to Forehead Sunday.  Happy Birthday, Alfred Hitchcock.  Blog readers, please bear with me.  I will try to come up with something better on Middle-aged Musings Monday.

 

 

 

Is a Lame Blog Post Useful?

Who knew I would make it to another Lame Post Friday?  Not me on Monday, that’s for sure.  Friday seemed oceans of time away!  Come to think of it, the end of my work day seemed pretty far off earlier today.  Ah, perspective.  There’s a bit of half-baked philosophy for you.  For anybody just tuning in, Lame Post Friday is the day I sometimes indulge in random observations and half-baked philosophy.  I do not know how much I can indulge in anything today, though.  I think my fall allergies have kicked in, big time.

I’m sure many readers can identify with my allergy-related tribulations.  If you have never suffered from allergies, congratulations.  If you suffer from allergies and have never to complained about them… PANTS ON FIRE!!!!  How can you say you have suffered and have never complained???  Oh well, maybe nobody ever said that.  Anyways, I have pontificated before on how I raise concerns, YOU complain, THAT GUY OVER THERE pisses and moans.  But I guess I can admit to a little personal whining.

Where was I?  Ah yes, trying to make some semblance of a blog post, before figuring out what to do with the rest of my Friday evening (ooh, that would be a good blog title, but I think I have already used it).  I feel I must do something useful.  I have a rather full schedule this weekend (remember All Tempest All The Time?  Well, that’s still going on), so I have no time to waste.  Therefore, lying flat on my back, watching the room spin, is not the best use of my time (full disclosure:  I actually tried it earlier, and it just made my back hurt).

The nice thing is, if I do anything useful now, I might be able to blog about it tomorrow.  You, gentle reader, will be the first to know. Happy Friday, everyone.

 

The Silliest Blog Post?

I could not think of anything to write a blog post about (I know, All Tempest All The Time, only I could not think of anything new to say about that either).  My husband, Steven, suggested I write a post about my silly husband.  Now I am afraid he will be dreadfully disappointed if I do not write such a blog post, so here goes.

The most glaring example of Steven’s silliness is that he was silly enough to marry me.  Obviously somebody married to me must be very silly, or perhaps a glutton for punishment (which is also, arguably, a silly way to be).  As anybody who has actually met me knows and readers of this blog suspect, I am no picnic.  Oh, I’m sure I have my good points, but we’re not talking about me.  The operative thing to do next is to give other concrete examples of how Steven is silly.  Well, for one thing, he has dubbed me the silliest.  Can you imagine such a thing?  Me, silly!  Well, I do write a silly blog, but, once again, we are not talking about me.

When my nieces were younger, it was quite the family controversy of who was the silliest, me or Steven.  Showing their wisdom and discernment, my nieces usually concluded that it was Steven, although for some unaccountable reason, the scales sometimes tipped in my direction.  My niece Gillian, however, wholeheartedly embraced Uncle Steve as the silliest.  Being a gentleman (albeit a silly one), he returned the favor.

One Christmas when I spoke to Gillian on the phone, she asked how The Silliest was.  Steven, in the background, said, “Tell her to quit talking about herself.”  When I asked Gillian what she had gotten for Christmas, she told me that one of her presents was a pig.  Steven immediately began saying, “Oink, oink.  Oink, oink,”  to which Gillian replied, “Tell him to quit talking about himself.”

 

More About the Tempest

I hope everybody can read it.

It may be All Tempest All The Time for the next couple of weeks.  Our Aug. 5 performance is in the books, but we have shows the 10th, 12th and 13th.  Then we’ll have at least a couple of rehearsals at the Utica Zoo, preparing for Aug. 19.  I may be able to sneak in a few real Mohawk Valley posts after that, but then we’ll be preparing for our final performance on Sept. 1.

Then I’ll start getting ready for Halloween, yes!

Thursday’s performance is at Benton’s Landing in Little Falls.  It is where we did our preview performance on July’s Third Thursday (that’s a thing in Little Falls).  Perhaps you read one of my blog posts about it.  It is an interesting performance space with a couple of different levels.

It doesn’t really show the whole space, but you can get an idea.

This is the cast of last year’s summer show, Much Ado About Nothing.  It was the only photo I could find on LiFT’s Facebook page of Benton’s Landing.  As I was adding it to this post, I remembered, I shared some photos of our Preview Performance last month at, you know, Benton’s Landing.  How silly of me!

I took this one standing behind the rapt audience (if they were not rapt, I would rap them on the noggin!) (just kidding, in order to make a pun).

So I am getting ready to go to rehearsal at Benton’s Landing.  Tomorrow is the performance.  Yikes!  That happened fast!  How did three days of this week just slip right by while I was at work thinking time was dragging on?  Ah, that is a topic for Lame Post Friday, when I occasionally indulge in half-baked philosophy. Now Friday seems pretty far away.  Perspective!

 

 

Damned or Dead, What’s the Difference?

Sorry kids, it’s Tired Tuesday.  Instead of whining about how tired I am (except for these first two sentences), I thought I’d share a few pictures and remarks about a favorite monster guy of mine, Boris Karloff.  When I was looking at my On This Day on Facebook, I saw this gem:

The movie version adds a “?” to Mad Monster Party

I wrote a blog post about Mad Monster Party? and would like to add the DVD to our Halloween collection (which everybody knows I watch all year long).   I downloaded the picture, thinking to use it at some future date.  Then again, why wait?  So I decided to use it and began trolling for more Boris Karloff pictures for my post, preferably of movies I own or have seen.  I remembered a double DVD my friend Rachel had sent me and soon found this:

Now I was on my way with a kind of movie poster theme.

Bedlam is perhaps not as horror-filled as one might expect with Karloff as the lead, but it is a pretty good flick.  It is very stylish.  I wrote a blog post about it.  Of course I decided to look for the other movie on that set.  Unfortunately, I could not remember the title.  I knew there was an island and almost everybody died, and the title reflected that.  It wasn’t Island of Lost Souls, that was something else.  It wasn’t Island of the Damned.  Hmmm…

Oh! Not island, ISLE! Silly me!

I found it with the help of a Google search.  I hope regular readers are proud of me, because I can almost never find anything with a Google search.  I did not write a whole blog post about this movie, but I did mention it in one.

I close with a poster from a movie that I have neither written about nor seen, but when I was pulling the others out of the Download file, I saw it and said, “Hey!”

I am adding it to my list of movies to look for.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

 

Scattered Sunday?

I wanted to have another Severed Head Sunday.  I thought it would happen when Steven agreed to watch The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, one of my all-time favorite cheesy movies.  From there we could have gone onto a number of other features, cheesy or otherwise:  Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Straitjacket, Sleepy Hollow (or, as I like to call it, The Headless Everybody), even Jaws has a scene with a severed head (I believe Jaws was a feature of my first Severed Head Sunday).

Then we decided to go for a walk, because  I finished a letter I wanted to mail.  I brought along the Tablet and took some pictures, so why not do a Sunday Stroll post?  While Steven was changing his shoes, I went into the backyard and got a picture of our Black-eyed Susans that I have been wanting.

The three bushes in the background are in the neighbors’ yard.

 

I took two shots, thinking to use the best one, but I now I think I’ll use both.

I don’t know if you can tell, but we’ve got quite a nice batch of chives next to the Black-eyed Susans.

I had just been remarking to Steven that our spearmint seems a little out of control, so I got a shot of that, too.

I should have gotten Steven to stand next to it for perspective.

I was glad I had taken two pictures at home, because I did not find as much to shoot on our walk.  However, I knew I wanted a picture of our post office, because I think it is kind of cool and historic looking.

I stood across the street so I could get the whole building.

As we walked up Main Street, I saw some flowers in front of Basloe Library which I had not taken a picture of, I don’t think.  I think I only took a shot of the ones in the park next to the library.

I wish I had focused in on the big pink blooms more, but you can’t see on the Tablet really well in the sunshine.

I was glad to get back home, because it was hotter outside than I had thought.  Also, I had not worn my sunglasses and the bright sunlight was bothering me.  Just to piss and moan a little, so this is more of a Wrist to Forehead Sunday after all.  However, my headline promised a Scattered Sunday and I began by talking about movies, so I will close with a photo I downloaded from one of my monster movie groups on Facebook.

Is it just me or does the building in the background look a little like Stone Mill at Canal Place in Little Falls?

It is a rare close up of Max Schrek in make-up as Nosferatu, who, as regular readers know, is one of my all-time favorite guys.  Happy Sunday, everyone.

 

I Didn’t Act and Type

So yesterday before our play, I just felt I could not write a post.  I thought to myself, “That’s OK.  Sometimes on a Saturday, I drink and type.  Today I’ll act and type!”  That was my plan, and it was a good one (it has been a saying of mine since army basic training: “That’s my plan and I think it’s a good one.”).  Except I didn’t come right home after the play.  I went to a lady’s house.  I drank wine.  I knew I wasn’t driving, and that was good, because I put the seat back and slept part of the way home.  That may have been awkward had I been driving.

The show went wonderfully.  That is, The Tempest by LiFT, Little Falls Theatre Company, in Caroga Lake, for those just tuning in or who forgot. I love acting, and I love community theatre.  This play has a delightful cast.  I like to hug the entire cast before a performance.  That gets awkward when there are people in the cast I don’t like.  Today I got pre-show and post-show hugs.  I can get very huggy.

Anyways, I went straight to bed when I finally got home.  I would still be asleep if it was up to me.  However, my husband has to be up.  He gets up early with me all week; I guess I can get up semi-early with him on the weekend.  As a added bonus, I can type in a kind of a blog post to make up for my miss on Saturday (that’s not writing, that’s typing, as Truman Capote once said).  Additionally, I did not have Lame Post Friday this week, which I almost always do.  So we an call this a Really REALLY Lame Post Saturday.  I hope to see you all later today on what is sure to be Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

 

To Blog or Not to Blog

Today’s mantra is, “Less stress.”  I have very little reason for stress.  OK, that’s a polite fiction I am telling myself.  The fact is, we all have reasons for stress, and stress is not always a bad thing.  However, since this is not Lame Post Friday, I will not philosophize (half-bakedly or otherwise) on stress.  Instead I will attempt a moderately amusing Non-Sequitur Thursday post.  I think I’ll use pictures.  I think Steven may have downloaded a couple of new ones…

I am NOT saying, “To be or not to be.”

This is LiFT rehearsing The Tempest at 120 London Bridge,  Caroga Lake, where we will perform on Saturday at 6 p.m.  It is a donation-based performance. I’m not sure what the suggested (or requested) donation is.  It is a lovely space to perform in.  Incidentally, I am the one in yellow tights, Acting (yes, it needs a capital A).  The photo was taken by Matt Powers, our director.

I missed him on TV!

Recently, Matt went on NewsTalk on WKTV to talk about LiFt and Shakespeare.  This is not what he will actually wear in The Tempest (he has two roles), but I think it was quite a theatrical choice for publicity purposes.

I’m not sure who took this photo; it was on LiFTs Facebook page.

To include three photos, as I like to do, here is one from early days of rehearsal, at Sterzinar Park, Canal Place, where next weekend’s performances take place.  I’m the one center stage, looking fairly ridiculous in the big old hat with a sweatshirt tied around my waist.  I tied on the sweatshirt not because I had tied one on (sorry; just had to make the play on words), but because I wanted something to put my sword through.  We had just started working on them.  I have a better looking sword holder now.

Performances of The Tempest in Little Falls  include Aug. 10, 6 p.m., Benton’s Landing; Aug. 12, 4 p.m., Sterzinar Park; and Aug. 13, 3 p.m., Sterzinar Park.  For more information, check out LiFT’s Facebook page.

 

No Laughing Matter! Or Is It?

OK, major panic attack just now.  I have about a half hour before my ride to rehearsal gets here.  That’s rehearsal for The Tempest with LiFT Theatre Company, in case you did not know or had forgotten.  I personally have forgotten most of my lines, the ones I reliably knew, at any rate.

So it’s Wuss-out Wednesday!  I actually started writing an awesome blog post while on breaks at work today.  Or perhaps I flatter myself.  You can judge for yourself, if I manage to finish it and post it in the next day or so.  Oh, I am so STRESSED!!!

And, as always, being a big baby about everything.  The fact of the matter is, I do not have to publish a blog post every day.  This is a purely self-imposed deadline and onus.  I know, some of you wish I would place a further onus on myself to write a GOOD blog post every day.  Well, ha ha on you, because this is as good as it gets!  Or is that no laughing matter?

This is the most incoherent post yet, I think.  But I have no time to fix it.  I need to get all my costume pieces together for rehearsal.  How complicatedly these Elizabethans dressed!  So many parts!  I will try to bring my Tablet to tomorrow’s rehearsal and take some pictures.  Today I fear I am too distracted by my own foolishness.  Some of you are thinking that tomorrow will be no different.  Indeed, I will probably be just as foolish.  But, as they say, I gotta be me.

I hope to see you all on Non-Sequitur Thursday.

 

A Metaphor on Mental Meanderings Monday

As regular readers know, I have been having trouble writing lately.  This morning before work, I opened my notebook (for those just tuning in, the spiral-bound paper kind) and penned the following:

Once again I draw a metaphor between writing and running.  One one reason, I have not been doing enough of either.  In many respects it is a sound comparison.  Both can be difficult.  Both are wonderful when going well, painful when not.  You have to get through the painful parts to get to the good parts.

The most important aspect of either is:  You have to do it. You can’t just sit and think about it, although some thought is necessary.  It does not count just to by the best running shoes, socks and bras, nor yet a fine new notebook and perfect pen.  You can’t just stretch, and you can’t just make notes and outlines (I personally have never successfully worked form nor even completed an outline, although I am a prodigious note-maker).

I don’t know how much further I can go with this, but at least it got my pen moving.

After writing that much, I turned back a few pages and wrote a few more notes on the murder mystery I am writing for a fundraiser for the Herkimer County Historical Society (preview of coming attractions).  I know I said you can’t just write notes, but notes are a very important part of murder mysteries.  They are not just notes I write from.  They are notes I give the actors to help them build their characters and aid them in the improvised sections of the performance.  Just to give you a little peek into how these murder mysteries are put together.

I guess I don’t know if my little comparison between running and writing has any value to any other writers nor yet holds any interest for any readers.  However, it worked pretty well as a pep talk for myself, and I’m going to call it good enough for a Monday Mental Meanderings.  This blog is just about to go All Tempest All The Time, and right now, I have to get ready for rehearsal.  I hope to see you all on Tired Tuesday.