Monday, November 18, 2013

Weekend Updates

Nothing especially organized about today's post, just the ramblings of a confused mind still waiting for his first cup of coffee.

- The high school musical was this weekend, an ambitious one this year: "Les Mis." 2-1/2 months of often grueling rehearsals (the directors of the musical for the past six years in our school are Broadway veterans, so they often seem to forget that these kids are students) really paid off--everyone did a fantastic job with the material. The Catbird was a chorus girl, though she got two or three solo lines and did great! I'll add that a number of the performances were revelatory--I sat there and thought, "Who knew [insert kid's name here] could sing like that?"

-Along those lines, I found it amusing that the school felt the need to post content and language warnings at the entrance and on the program. Of course, there is some 'rough stuff' involved.

- The Magpie came home for the weekend (or, more correctly, we went and fetched her) so she could see the musical. It was really nice to have her back, and real nice to see my girls together. They get along so well.

-Enough of that mushy stuff. You ever notice that, in car commercials (and probably not necessarily just car commercials) where there's a hetero couple driving, it's almost always the man behind the wheel? I do most of the driving in this family, especially at night and in winter (which is roughly 8 months here--okay, I exagerrate), but that's because the girls don't have licenses and my wife doesn't like the roads. I wonder if this is the case in most places. Do share.

-Despite the craziness of the weekend, I managed to get in some decent work on BARTON'S WOMEN, working through about 50 pages of manuscript. Ah, the benefits of getting up before everyone else! It shrank by almost 500 words and one manuscript page, though I'm finding myself struggling with one particular section--not so much in the writing, but with whether the segment belongs where it is or needs to move up from the back of the chapter to the front. I think I can still trim a bit from the front edge of the story as well. I'm about 100 pages out from the end, and am still hoping to start my query by month's end.

-Coffee's kicking in now. Look out.

-Comet ISON--have you seen it? Have you looked? Sadly, we have two obstacles to quality viewing (three, if you count today's clouds): hills to the east that get in the way, and a street light about 200 feet up from my house that's quite bright and glary. I'd like to see it before it's gone.

-A college campus early on a Sunday afternoon is like a ghost town.

-I also got through a number of pages of reading for a friend (you know who you are!). I'm happy to say I'm almost done, and happier to say that it's quite good! I aim to have it for you by Thanksgiving!

-Two weeks ago I turned in five (or six) printed pieces for the Writers' Circle anthology. Yesterday, I e-mailed the project leader four of the five (or six) pieces--I can't remember what the extra one (or two) was. That's pretty sad. There are at least three possibilities. Why didn't I write this down?

-I appreciate the input you gave me on my question of two weeks ago. Your responses made me think quite a bit, and I'll likely have more on that subject when I can devote a bit more time to things.

-And in closing, this one may be a little mellow and melancholy for a Monday morning, but I love the song and I love the performance, acoustic Dead in front of a rowdy Halloween crowd at Radio City Music Hall. See you Friday (I hope)--how was your weekend?






12 comments:

  1. I love having the family together. It warms my heart to see my kids liking it when they are together. Friends. Since they're all so scattered now, all over the world, these time are rare and especially precious.

    As for the car driving thing, my hubby usually drives. When it's his car. :D Or when the weather's bad. He spent a lot of years in areas with a lot of snow when he was a young man and did all kinds of that stupid stuff so he's good in slippery conditions. Me, not so much. I defer then. lol

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    1. Yeah, I realize at their age the time where we're together more often than not is likely coming to a close. I'll try to see the positive in it, rather than the negative.

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  2. My son's high school did The Producers a couple of years ago, which was pretty amazing. I'm not really impressed with their choice of musical numbers for this year, though. (And I'm drawing a blank on the name of it at the moment or I'd tell you.)

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    1. That memorable, huh? Last year we had Footloose, which I wasn't overly fond of (the kids were great, though). Thanks for stopping by.

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  3. A local high school group here did Les Mis a few years back and it was incredible! One of the young ladies is now taking opera singing in university - beautiful voice!

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    1. Yeah, we've got a couple of kids here who I can easily see making careers out of this.

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  4. Family having great get togethers are always a beautiful thing. Glad your manuscript is also coming along.

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    1. Thanks, Sheena-kay. Also nice is she'll be back next week for Thanksgiving!

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  5. Replies
    1. Drama class = good, Class drama = bad.

      Thanks for stopping by, Sarah!

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  6. Hi Jeff - any time you post a Dead clip, I'll be grateful.

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