A new year, a new blog

I've been posting to this blog for a few years now. However, I've decided to move all my posts to another Blogger address that more closely relates to my website address, my email address, and my business name. So, this is the last entry that I will post here at this address. I'm hoping you will follow me to the new blog at My World's a Stage. Once there, remember to update your bookmarks or bloglist.

Please, come visit me at my new blog home!

The actors are come hither, my lord (2008 wrap-up)

• “The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral; scene individable, or poem unlimited….” Polonius, regarding the visiting acting troupe in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

It’s that time of year again! Time for the list of professional theatre productions I saw in the previous year. After putting together my list, I realized that I saw fewer plays in 2008 than in 2007. Blasphemy! (39 in ’07 and 33 in ’08). I didn’t see fewer plays because there were fewer to see… I just didn’t have time to see as many. Looking at my list, I can also see that I pretty much blew off seeing theatre in the last couple months of the year. Too busy trying to get my website up and creating product to put on that website. There are only so many free hours in a day! Choices had to be made. ;-)

So, here’s the list (in alphabetical order):

Antigone – St. Louis Actors Studio
Assassins – New Line Theatre
Bluish – New Jewish Theatre
Chaim’s Love Song – New Jewish Theatre
Cherry Docs – New Jewish Theatre
A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline – Ivory Theatre
Comedy of Errors – St. Louis Shakespeare
Edwin Drood – Overdue Theatre Company
A Fire As Bright As Heaven – St. Louis Actors Studio
Hair – New Line Theatre
High Fidelity – New Line Theatre
Killing Women – Hot City Theatre
King Lear – St. Louis Shakespeare
KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park – Magic Smoking Monkey Theatre
Ladyhouse Blues – ACT, Inc.
Lieutenant of Inishmore – The Rep Off-Ramp
Little Dog Laughed – The Rep Off-Ramp
Mary’s Wedding – Echo Theatre
Measure for Measure – Mustard Seed Theatre
Men with Clubs – Hot City Theatre
Night of the Iguana – Muddy Waters Theatre
Odyssey – St. Louis Shakespeare
Road to Mecca – The Orange Girls
Romantic Age – ACT, Inc.
Romeo & Juliet – St. Louis Shakespeare
The Scene – Hot City Theatre
Scorched – The Orange Girls
Smoke on the Mountain – Mustard Seed Theatre
Snapshots – St. Louis Actors Studio
Tale of the Allergist’s Wife – New Jewish Theatre
Vieux Carre – Muddy Waters Theatre
The Waiting Room – St. Louis Actors Studio
War of the Worlds – St. Louis Shakespeare

And as I ask myself every year: what was my favorite production? What was my least favorite? (I NEVER answer this question in print.) Here are my top 5 favorites (in alphabetical order):

Cherry Docs
Comedy of Errors
KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park
Mary’s Wedding
Scorched

None of these productions were seen by me in my guise of Kevin Kline Awards Judge. My judging duties start now in 2009. So, next year when I do my wrap-up of plays that I’ve seen, I will be leaving out the part where I pick my five favorites.

If you’d like to see my lists from previous years, click here for the 2007 list, here for the 2006 list and here for 2005 (and previous).

I’d love it if you left a comment telling me what your favorite productions were this year. Even if you’re not in St. Louis, let me know what plays you loved in your city!

Rocking out on the treadmill

I made a really fabulous discovery this weekend: Rounded ceiling dormers are a singers best friend!

While doing my time on the treadmill with my iPod blasting in my ears, I came across a song I just had to sing along with: Heart’s Magic Man. Now, sure, I sang for years as a karaoke host but I stopped doing that 10 years ago. I could never sing Heart even when I was singing four nights a week. My range wasn’t wide enough to hit those high notes. But suddenly, there in that rounded dormer, I was Ann Wilson! ha! Well, one song led to another and I was singing along with Sonny & Cher, Lulu, Dusty Springfield, The Supremes, Led Zeppelin (hey, hey mama said the way you move…) Petula Clark, T. Rex, The Cure, Chris Isaak, Alannah Myles (black velvet in the little boy’s smile…), Rick James, Prince, and the Talking Heads. Yes, you guessed it… I had the iPod on shuffle so I was getting any old kind of music. But the point is that before I knew it, I had been walking and singing on the treadmill for over an hour. Time certainly flies when you’re having fun! I’m looking forward to doing it again tonight, but I’ll have to time myself because an hour on the treadmill is more time than I have available this evening.

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I took down the tree this weekend and put away most of the holiday decorations. I still have the white lights in the windows. I wish I could leave them on year-round because I love the way they shine onto the front porch.

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I finally (yippee!) have Romeo & Juliet video available for the cast and crew. After spending days (literally) fighting with my old computer, I was finally able to get dvd masters made. At this point, though, I am so disgusted with my computer that I refuse to use it to make dvd copies from my masters. Instead, I will use My-Guys computer, which is much more reliable and faster to boot!

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I hope you had a fabulous holiday season. We did, and we’re looking forward to an exciting 2009.

hope you had a holly jolly

It’s been a while since I’ve updated. I’m not sure where to start.

A couple days before Xmas I was cleaning the house and getting things ready for the family to visit. One of the things I always like to do at Xmas is shoot a bit of video when all of us are there together. So, I got out the camcorder, loaded up a new mini-dv tape and started walking around the house shooting any old thing that happened. Or at least I thought I was. Turns out that the camera only shot the first couple seconds and then went blank. I tried changing the battery, changing the tape, turning it off then back on to reset it. Nothing worked.

I voiced my frustration to My-Guy and he replied, “Well, I guess I know what to get you for Xmas.” So, a bad thing turned out to be a really good thing. I immediately got online and researched camcorders in my price range. I knew that I didn’t need High Definition because we don’t have any hi-def tv’s or dvd players. Also, I knew that my computer didn’t have the power to process hi-def video, so I stuck with standard definition.

It had been so long since I’d researched camcorders that I didn’t realize I would have choices other than basically a newer version of my existing mini-dv tape camera. I was excited to find that camcorders are now available with built-in hard drives to hold the video. (Sound like an old codger, don’t I? So out of touch with the newest technologies. heehee)

I decided on a Sony DCR-SR85. If you click on that link, you’ll see the suggested retail price for the camera. Believe me, I did not pay anywhere near that amount. I found the camera on sale at the Best Buy website. Bought it online, then picked it up at the store.

I love the camera so far. It’s easy to use and can hold an insane amount of video on the drive. That’s mainly the reason I decided on it. In the past, I’ve had problems videotaping stage productions because they always last well over the hour that mini-dv tapes allow. Now, with this camera, I’ll be able to tape those really long Shakespeare plays without missing a thing! ;-) Bring on the 4-hour Hamlet! I’m ready! heehee.

I also updated my video editing software. I’m now running Pinnacle Studio 12. The only thing that could make all of this better is if I had a more powerful computer to process all the video I plan to take. Well, that’s for the future.

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I walked about 40 minutes on the treadmill last night. I plan on walking at least 30 minutes a day; longer on the weekends. It’s really great to have it in the bedroom next to the TV. Makes the time go by much more quickly than staring at a wall while walking.

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The Boy will turn 20 this Friday! Wow. No longer a teenager. How did time fly this quickly? It seems like he was my little bitty baby only yesterday. I’m so proud of him. He’s such a great guy, plus he’s handsome and smart. And no… that’s not just a proud mom speaking. He really is great, handsome and smart. Love him!

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I hope all of you had a wonderful (insert holiday here), and I hope that you have an absolutely fabulous New Year! Have fun!

I'm so looking forward to this

Tonight after work I am going to Sears to buy a treadmill while they're still on sale. I've been wanting one for a while. You may remember that I injured my back on a treadmill last March. It took three months to recover and the time off from exercising broke my habit of going to the gym. But always in the back of my mind I knew that I needed to get back to working out. I just couldn't seem to muster up the motivation to do it. I am now motivated again, but this time I'm leaving out the gym part of the equation and doing it at home instead.

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The Boy is home for the holidays! He has officially taken over the TV room with his new XBox 360. Good thing I can watch TV in the bedroom (while walking on the treadmill).

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Christmas will be held at our house this year. It's a rotating holiday between me, my sister, and my mom. Actually, this year was Mom's turn but with the recent flooding of her basement and the general disarray of all the stuff she had to sort through afterwards, it will be easier on all of us to have it at my house. My Guy will cook dinner and other family members will bring desserts. My input to all this is that I will be the cleaner-upper. Yucky job, but someone's got to do it!

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This may be my last post before Christmas, so here's my wish for you: I hope your holidays are everything you want them to be. Enjoy your time with family and/or the time you get to spend alone. Happy (insert holiday here) !

projects, fallen Xmas trees, and non-opening car doors. Oh my!

I took a vacation day Friday so I could have a long weekend to get some work done on a variety of projects that need to be finished before the holidays.

The first thing I did on Friday was to assemble all the photographs I had taken of my latest embroidery design “Katherine”. I made a video slideshow (with subtitles) to put on my website as a tutorial for how to do a multiple position appliqué/embroidery design. Each step of the process is explained (and shown). It’s not that machine appliqué is so difficult, but if you’ve never done a multiple appliqué section design, it can get confusing unless you have a guide to get you through all the steps involved. If you’d like to see how it’s done, click here. The video is around 5 minutes long. It also includes bonus steps on how to make the embroidered design into a stylish magnet.

While I was assembling the video, I also had my embroidery machine going stitching out two new designs: Troilus and Cressida. Yeah, you can take the girl outta the theatre, but you can’t take the theatre outta the girl. (Katherine, Troilus, and Cressida are not up on the site yet, but will be later this week.)

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Saturday I worked for a while at St. Louis Shakespeare’s auditions for the upcoming production of Edward III. I’m really looking forward to seeing this one, as I’ve never read it or seen it. I believe our production will be the Midwest premiere of Shakespeare’s most recently attributed play.

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Sunday was a waste, project-wise. I attempted three separate versions of an eyeglass case and none of them were good enough to keep. Later this week I will try again and hopefully come up with something that’s workable and pretty.

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While walking around the living room late last night turning off all the Christmas lights and decorations, I accidentally knocked the Xmas tree over. Ornaments went flying everywhere, but luckily only one broke. I guess carpet is good for something after all. It was past midnight and I really was way too tired to re-decorate the tree so all the ornaments are waiting for me to get home from work today and put them in their rightful places. ;-) And I’ll have to do that as soon as I walk in the door because just a few minutes later, I’ll be hosting this month’s board meeting at my house. Hey, maybe I can get the board members to help me re-decorate the tree!

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Icy weather today in St. Louis, but that wasn’t the reason my drivers side door and lock didn’t work this morning. I’ve been having this problem on and off for a while now. I cannot unlock the drivers side with either the remote or with the key. I’ve been crawling into my car via the passenger side and really…. it’s just too ridiculous. Also, it makes me feel claustrophobic to think that I cannot get out of my car unless I climb to the passenger side. So, into the shop it goes but I couldn’t get an appointment until Thursday. So, a few more days of crawling across the center console and then hopefully, all will be well.

Catching up, kind of. No, not really

So much to do, so little time

Several weeks after the end of the run of Romeo & Juliet, I still have not processed the video I shot. It’s not that I haven’t tried, it’s that my computer doesn’t seem to want to let me capture it. That’s one of the reasons I was trying to buy a new computer (you can read all about that disappointing adventure in my previous blog entry).

So, no new computer means that somehow or another I have to get my old comp to step up to the task. I defragged, I deleted old unused programs, I emptied all temp files, etc. Still, no luck with the video.

Then yesterday I decided to upgrade the video software. I figured that it might help and if it didn’t, well at least I tried. Right? I installed the new software and viola! I was able to capture an hour and a half of video! This particular production of R&J was pretty damn long, so I’ve got another 1.5 hours of video to capture this evening. Plus, I shot some extra footage from a different angle; maybe another 45 minutes or so. I’m hoping that the video is good enough to actually warrant processing it for dvd. Keep your fingers crossed for me, OK?

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In other news: I finally finished my website and it is up and running! Of course, I’ve noticed a couple little things that aren’t quite right, but they’ll be easy enough to fix when I have a few minutes. So, here it is: My World’s a Stage. It’s my online store where I sell crafty items I’ve made, where I list any items I have available on Ebay, and most of all where I hope to sell the digital embroidery files I’ve created. So, if you have an embroidery machine or know someone who does, be sure to give them the link to my site. Even if you don’t do machine embroidery, please take a look around my site and see the kind of stuff I create.

And like my blog-friend Kathy G who tries to do one new thing a day, my new thing yesterday was researching and then buying online advertising on both Google and Facebook. I never thought that would be something I would ever need or want to do, but realizing that just because I have a website doesn’t mean anyone will ever find it, I decided to spend some money to target my desired customers.

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I got my first Kevin Kline Award judging assignment! I’m not saying who, when, what, where or why because… well… just because I shouldn’t announce what I’m doing. And I won’t be writing about the show afterwards either because that would also be … well… wrong. But I’m looking forward to it!

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I attempted to put up my Christmas tree over the weekend, but found after removing it from the garage, that rodents of some type had made their home in among the branches. The tree limbs were full of what looked like plant stems and blueberries. Plus, there was plenty of poo. So, the tree and it’s box went to the curb in the dark of night. (I didn’t want anyone to drive by and think “oh! a tree! let’s take it home!”. Mom was nice enough to let me borrow one of her trees (yes, I said one of her trees. She has a collection). So, Mom’s tree is in my living room and it looks very nice.