Yes, I know. My first blog post in over a year and a half. Regularity isn't my strong point, it seems. ;)
So. Why did I decide to write one now? What am I doing?
Well. That's the question. What am I doing? Well, not much, it seems. Especially compared to last year. At the moment I find that, aside from work, which I view not as a fulfilling profession but as something that gets me enough money to have a roof over my head and decent meals, I'm not doing much at all. Especially compared to last year. Oh, of course, I'm reading a lot and I'm probably gaming more than I have in a while, but that's not really what I mean. Before, I wasn't really the guy who cleaned the kitchen for a living. I was a literature student, or an amateur theater practitioner, who just happened to clean the kitchen for money because the more important things unfortunately don't earn you a steady wage. This year though, I seem to be doing little in the way of either studying or being involved in theatre. I had to decline being in the sketch show this year because of shift patterns, and although I do have a part in the panto this year - I play Mr. Darling, and I have a stunning daughter, an awesome ftm son and another son who I don't really see a lot - I really haven't been able to be involved much. This is partly, again, due to my work schedule, though to be fair I have been available at least once a week - I just haven't been needed. As for my lit studies, well, I looked up enroling myself onto my next module today, and I found that it had already closed. This is quite a blow, since I was basicallyplanning 2014 around it. It's that fact that has caused me quite a bit of confusion as to what the heck I'm meant to be doing. It's left a bit of a gap and I'm trying to think of some worthy pursuit to fill it.
Another thing, that is in a way connected: I feel quite more isolated, somehow, that I did last year. Last year I was living with some close friends, and a handful of my dearest friends, people who I would do almost anything for, are people I either met or got closer to during it. OK, we lost a few people to the lands outside of Bangor at the end of it (or just after, Christmas, in one case) and they are sorely missed, though I have seen a few of them since (and one of them is in Hong Kong so we'll forgive her not having been around :P), but still, I made quite a few meaningful connections last year, and got involved in quite a few things. I even got to put my directing hat on for the first time in a while. I wasn't as involved as I was back in the day where my evenings were always my own, but my working life at least didn't get TOO much in the way.
This year, though... well, I think I've already highlighted the problem so I may be running around in circles a bit. Basically though, not being able to get involved with things much has led to not being able to get to know people like I used to, and not being able to spend time with the people I already know. In fact, I've only really gotten to know one person among those new to Bangor this year. She is really lovely, though, and to be fair I have befriended (or re-befriended in Chib's case) a couple of people who were already around.
And that leads me tangentically to this fact - my most reliable time of socialisation at the moment is SODA's karaoke social on a Saturday night. This is despite my steadfast refusal to partake in karaoke, and the fact I will almost certainly never actually join SODA. (Sorry guys, but I don't have anything relevant to offer the musical theater cause.) Still, there are a lot more of my friends there than there used to be, and I'm sure of a welcome from at least part of the crowd there. There's that.
Monday 11 November 2013
Saturday 10 March 2012
Catching Up!
So... another blog post...
I had to miss out on performing in An Evening of The Arts last weekend because of work. Stupid bloody thing. Missed Laith's performance of The Admirable Crichton on the afternoon of the same day. If I'd made that performance I'd have had 4 weekends straight of performances. :p
Which brings me to my next thing... I'm in The Importance of Being Earnest tommorow. I'm doing it on 3 rehearsals, which beats my 5 for Faustus and 4 for Ceasar. There's also Bex's disseration performance that I'm doing a week on Wednesday (the same day of the BEDS AGM, incidentally). I play a wounded soldier and shout a lot. Fun! :)
Speaking of the AGM, we are now in what seems to be "performance societies AGM month". Bangor Comedy had theirs this week. It's a good looking committee, and since I will now be living with 25% of it I guess I'd better rejoin next year! On the subject of Bangor Comedy I've managed to make it to an Impsoc show and a standup show in the last couple of weeks. The newbies seem pretty good overall, but one Josh Fenby-Taylor pretty clearly stands out.
ROSTRA is having their AGM next week. That'll be an interesting one as we're voting in whether to have two now committee positions - techical assistant and assistant (actual title of the latter to be confirmed), which would bring the committee up to 7 members. I'm planning on standing for assistant if that position is voted into existence.
Then, the week after, BEDS has theirs. That's always a fun meeting. I'm going for vice president. I think I've been around long enough that I'll be able to keep things running. ;)
Outside of the world of drama, I've got a house to myself for a month now. My mum came over this morning and we cleaned out all the rooms I actually use, as well as removing some stuff I probably won't use before moving back to Llandudno. I should get my deposit back now!
I had to miss out on performing in An Evening of The Arts last weekend because of work. Stupid bloody thing. Missed Laith's performance of The Admirable Crichton on the afternoon of the same day. If I'd made that performance I'd have had 4 weekends straight of performances. :p
Which brings me to my next thing... I'm in The Importance of Being Earnest tommorow. I'm doing it on 3 rehearsals, which beats my 5 for Faustus and 4 for Ceasar. There's also Bex's disseration performance that I'm doing a week on Wednesday (the same day of the BEDS AGM, incidentally). I play a wounded soldier and shout a lot. Fun! :)
Speaking of the AGM, we are now in what seems to be "performance societies AGM month". Bangor Comedy had theirs this week. It's a good looking committee, and since I will now be living with 25% of it I guess I'd better rejoin next year! On the subject of Bangor Comedy I've managed to make it to an Impsoc show and a standup show in the last couple of weeks. The newbies seem pretty good overall, but one Josh Fenby-Taylor pretty clearly stands out.
ROSTRA is having their AGM next week. That'll be an interesting one as we're voting in whether to have two now committee positions - techical assistant and assistant (actual title of the latter to be confirmed), which would bring the committee up to 7 members. I'm planning on standing for assistant if that position is voted into existence.
Then, the week after, BEDS has theirs. That's always a fun meeting. I'm going for vice president. I think I've been around long enough that I'll be able to keep things running. ;)
Outside of the world of drama, I've got a house to myself for a month now. My mum came over this morning and we cleaned out all the rooms I actually use, as well as removing some stuff I probably won't use before moving back to Llandudno. I should get my deposit back now!
Saturday 25 February 2012
Two months in one post...
I really should have posted earlier. Quite a lot has been going on in the last couple of months and now I'm going to have to gloss over quite a bit of it to keep the post relatively short.
Right...
I'm still hanging around at the same job - I still haven't managed to find anything in Bangor yet. To be fair, this is a bit of a dry period for job vacancies around here. I might have a bit more luck in the summer when all the students leave.
In the meantime I'm moving back to Llandudno for a few months in April. My contract runs out then and, though I do practically live in Teras, I doubt they'll let me actually sleep there.
I am moving back in the summer though, which brings me to the next thing - from July I'll be living with four wonderful people in a much better house than the one I'm in right now. And I get a bigger room. I couldn't be happier. Well, I suppose if I was getting all that for my current rent. Or if I was living with five wonderful people. That might make things a bit crowded though. :P Either way, a massive, MASSIVE thanks to Miss Lucy Bishop for saving my bacon when my original housing plan fell apart.
Now to theatrical matters:
I didn't get a part in Earnest, specifically because of my working hours. This was very disappointing, especially since I couldn't blame the directors, but nor could I take it out on work. I was basically left with no-one appropriate to vent rage at.
I was offered a part the day before yesterday though. If there's one thing I'm apparently good at, it's ending up in plays because a cast slot needs filling more than half-way through a production.
221B went pretty well. I hear we had near to a full house on Sunday, which I proceeded to pull an angry badger on. ;)
Faustus is also going rather well. The first performance was last night and it went much better than I expected, especially my part, which was underrehearsed. In retrospect, I should have skipped the 221b rehearsal on the Monday of that play's production week to make the Faustus rehearsal. Sure, the 221b directors wouldn't have liked it, but I had ten times as many lines in Faustus as I did in 221b. :p
Either way, Faustus, despite all the worry, went well, and hopefully it shall do so again tonight.
I still don't agree with the monologue about Helen of Troy being pre-recorded though.
I have two major projects ongoing after Faustus is done. One is the filming of Malovlio's Revenge. We filmed the first scene a few weeks back, and I hear that Rose and Kerry are doing their scene some time soon. Perhaps they've already done it. Either way, the project is off the ground.
The other project is BEDS' production of a Clockwork Orange, in which I play the prison warder and Alex's dad. Neither character gets violent, but I've still had to learn some rather fun dance/fight choreaography. Hopefully, I'll finally get my script tommorow. :)
Right, I think that's enough catch up for now. I leave you with this genuinely interesting blog by the delightful Lauren Court-Dobson:
http://debatesineducation.wordpress.com/
Right...
I'm still hanging around at the same job - I still haven't managed to find anything in Bangor yet. To be fair, this is a bit of a dry period for job vacancies around here. I might have a bit more luck in the summer when all the students leave.
In the meantime I'm moving back to Llandudno for a few months in April. My contract runs out then and, though I do practically live in Teras, I doubt they'll let me actually sleep there.
I am moving back in the summer though, which brings me to the next thing - from July I'll be living with four wonderful people in a much better house than the one I'm in right now. And I get a bigger room. I couldn't be happier. Well, I suppose if I was getting all that for my current rent. Or if I was living with five wonderful people. That might make things a bit crowded though. :P Either way, a massive, MASSIVE thanks to Miss Lucy Bishop for saving my bacon when my original housing plan fell apart.
Now to theatrical matters:
I didn't get a part in Earnest, specifically because of my working hours. This was very disappointing, especially since I couldn't blame the directors, but nor could I take it out on work. I was basically left with no-one appropriate to vent rage at.
I was offered a part the day before yesterday though. If there's one thing I'm apparently good at, it's ending up in plays because a cast slot needs filling more than half-way through a production.
221B went pretty well. I hear we had near to a full house on Sunday, which I proceeded to pull an angry badger on. ;)
Faustus is also going rather well. The first performance was last night and it went much better than I expected, especially my part, which was underrehearsed. In retrospect, I should have skipped the 221b rehearsal on the Monday of that play's production week to make the Faustus rehearsal. Sure, the 221b directors wouldn't have liked it, but I had ten times as many lines in Faustus as I did in 221b. :p
Either way, Faustus, despite all the worry, went well, and hopefully it shall do so again tonight.
I still don't agree with the monologue about Helen of Troy being pre-recorded though.
I have two major projects ongoing after Faustus is done. One is the filming of Malovlio's Revenge. We filmed the first scene a few weeks back, and I hear that Rose and Kerry are doing their scene some time soon. Perhaps they've already done it. Either way, the project is off the ground.
The other project is BEDS' production of a Clockwork Orange, in which I play the prison warder and Alex's dad. Neither character gets violent, but I've still had to learn some rather fun dance/fight choreaography. Hopefully, I'll finally get my script tommorow. :)
Right, I think that's enough catch up for now. I leave you with this genuinely interesting blog by the delightful Lauren Court-Dobson:
http://debatesineducation.wordpress.com/
Thursday 15 December 2011
Christmas revelry and the pitches I failed to attend!
Hello again! This may have to be a speedy one, as I have an audition in half an hour!
Had a 221B rehearsal on Sunday afternoon. We still haven't managed to get everyone together for my bit in Act 2 (Lucy was working and Thomasina was in the Panto's matineé performance), but we did have some fun reimagining interlude 1. Apparently my howling is rather harrowing - this from Ed who's actually meant to be the one doing it.
Me and Sam went from there to Amy's place for free pizza (Yay! Love you Amy), and I got subjected Flight of the Conchords for the first time. A bit like Peep Show but with random comedy music videos thrown in.
Then the ROSTRA Panto in the evening. Me, Chris and Ambles decided to break the mould by rooting for the rat. After all, all he wanted was for his fellow rats to live without oppression, right? What's so bad about that?
Helen's finished Malvolio's Revenge. Apparently, he kills Andrew, rapes Olivia and gets Maria killed. I played that guy in the orignal play!
Monday night was the last cheese night of the year. I went briefly but it didn't turn out to be that fun this time round. I think I was there about half an hour or so.
Missed the ROSTRA GM on Tuesday. The Importance of Being Earnest got in. Not actually what I would have voted for, but I do love that play, and this is the first chance I have of being it.
Wednesday saw me having my first meal at the Teras Lounge, the secret resteraunt hidden deep in the bowels of Main Arts. The food ranged from adequate to excellent and usually leaned towards the latter end of the scale. The hot drinks were very good as well, and relatively cheap.
Missed most of the BEDS Christmas ball, and therefore the pitching. Can't really complain about what got in, though I probably would have voted for Rebecca had I been there.
The tail end of the Ball was rather fun, and after a few goodbyes at scattered intervals between Powis and the Greek, a few of us ened up in the latter. I ended up spending 15 minutes trying to keep Lauren warm, and she was cold again within 5 minutes of leaving my presence, making it necessary for Sam to do the same. The girl seems to have very little in the way of heat retention capabilites. :P
A couple more goodbyes happened on the way back home. I probably won't see half the people I saw last night this side of 2012. Ah... the Christmas holidays, eh?
Anyway, I have that audition in a few minutes, so I should get to it now!
See you next time!
Had a 221B rehearsal on Sunday afternoon. We still haven't managed to get everyone together for my bit in Act 2 (Lucy was working and Thomasina was in the Panto's matineé performance), but we did have some fun reimagining interlude 1. Apparently my howling is rather harrowing - this from Ed who's actually meant to be the one doing it.
Me and Sam went from there to Amy's place for free pizza (Yay! Love you Amy), and I got subjected Flight of the Conchords for the first time. A bit like Peep Show but with random comedy music videos thrown in.
Then the ROSTRA Panto in the evening. Me, Chris and Ambles decided to break the mould by rooting for the rat. After all, all he wanted was for his fellow rats to live without oppression, right? What's so bad about that?
Helen's finished Malvolio's Revenge. Apparently, he kills Andrew, rapes Olivia and gets Maria killed. I played that guy in the orignal play!
Monday night was the last cheese night of the year. I went briefly but it didn't turn out to be that fun this time round. I think I was there about half an hour or so.
Missed the ROSTRA GM on Tuesday. The Importance of Being Earnest got in. Not actually what I would have voted for, but I do love that play, and this is the first chance I have of being it.
Wednesday saw me having my first meal at the Teras Lounge, the secret resteraunt hidden deep in the bowels of Main Arts. The food ranged from adequate to excellent and usually leaned towards the latter end of the scale. The hot drinks were very good as well, and relatively cheap.
Missed most of the BEDS Christmas ball, and therefore the pitching. Can't really complain about what got in, though I probably would have voted for Rebecca had I been there.
The tail end of the Ball was rather fun, and after a few goodbyes at scattered intervals between Powis and the Greek, a few of us ened up in the latter. I ended up spending 15 minutes trying to keep Lauren warm, and she was cold again within 5 minutes of leaving my presence, making it necessary for Sam to do the same. The girl seems to have very little in the way of heat retention capabilites. :P
A couple more goodbyes happened on the way back home. I probably won't see half the people I saw last night this side of 2012. Ah... the Christmas holidays, eh?
Anyway, I have that audition in a few minutes, so I should get to it now!
See you next time!
Sunday 11 December 2011
Crowns and Fairs and Game Boys... oh, my!
The mysterious land of Garth turned out to not have the distinguishing smell that the residents say it has, but that might have been due to the three or four cans of glitter spray that people were being attacked with. Massive room though... and it had a piano in the corner. Varo turned out to be a pretty good duet pianist. Not with myself, mind you. I don't play piano. Oh, and Stephen turned up in drag. He didn't like it. He seriously didn't like it.
Leila fell over trying to keep someone else from falling over on Love Lane. This led to her letting a bag of frozen peas take up residence next to her ankle and, on Saturday night, going up to hospital. Sounds like it's fine though. Apparently the advice she got was to go easy on it and not to take up Irish dancing.:P
The Three Crowns was pretty fun for a while, though it did start to stagnate a little towards the end. And we won't go into people disappearing or anything like that to protect the hideously drunk. Anyway, just as we were about to leave... BAM. Dance version of Part of Your World. It was one of those things that's so bad it's amazing. Took me half the song to work out what it even was.
I shunned Occy and headed up to Upper Bangor with Amy and Lauren. Lauren came up with enough quotable comments to fill a small book. Because she's Lauren. The Mike Costa song made my fucking night. Though I remember little of it now.
Me and Amy bumped into Seth and Dan at Bella, they having come out of work about three and a half hours late. People spend a lot at Teras apparently...
So... that was my Friday night... and the Saturday?
There was a Christmas fair in Bangor. Went along part of the high street and in the area near the Yellow. I wandered down there and found Ambles and Helen and Imogen, and then more people found us as time went on. I ended up looking on in bemusement as people voluntarily went to be thrown around or turned upside down 30 foot in the air... :p
Costa Coffee failing to provide Imogen with her preferred hot chocolate, we headed back to Cynlas to have some of Ambles'. Yay for Ambles and her hot chocolate making skills!
Went back home after that for a bit and then went on to Skerries, where I sold one of my GBAs to Hannah. It's fine. I have another! Stayed there for a few hours. Hannah got rather pissed, but probably still remembers everything that happened. Don't ask me how... :/
221B rehearsal soon. And then tonight... the ROSTRA panto!
See you soon!
Leila fell over trying to keep someone else from falling over on Love Lane. This led to her letting a bag of frozen peas take up residence next to her ankle and, on Saturday night, going up to hospital. Sounds like it's fine though. Apparently the advice she got was to go easy on it and not to take up Irish dancing.:P
The Three Crowns was pretty fun for a while, though it did start to stagnate a little towards the end. And we won't go into people disappearing or anything like that to protect the hideously drunk. Anyway, just as we were about to leave... BAM. Dance version of Part of Your World. It was one of those things that's so bad it's amazing. Took me half the song to work out what it even was.
I shunned Occy and headed up to Upper Bangor with Amy and Lauren. Lauren came up with enough quotable comments to fill a small book. Because she's Lauren. The Mike Costa song made my fucking night. Though I remember little of it now.
Me and Amy bumped into Seth and Dan at Bella, they having come out of work about three and a half hours late. People spend a lot at Teras apparently...
So... that was my Friday night... and the Saturday?
There was a Christmas fair in Bangor. Went along part of the high street and in the area near the Yellow. I wandered down there and found Ambles and Helen and Imogen, and then more people found us as time went on. I ended up looking on in bemusement as people voluntarily went to be thrown around or turned upside down 30 foot in the air... :p
Costa Coffee failing to provide Imogen with her preferred hot chocolate, we headed back to Cynlas to have some of Ambles'. Yay for Ambles and her hot chocolate making skills!
Went back home after that for a bit and then went on to Skerries, where I sold one of my GBAs to Hannah. It's fine. I have another! Stayed there for a few hours. Hannah got rather pissed, but probably still remembers everything that happened. Don't ask me how... :/
221B rehearsal soon. And then tonight... the ROSTRA panto!
See you soon!
Friday 9 December 2011
The Christmas Meal I Went To But Didn't Eat At
Hello again all!
The ROSTRA Christmas meal happened on Wednesday night. I had to miss most of it because I was stuck in work but I managed to sneak in sometime between the main course and dessert. It seemed like quite a few people had taken advantage of the free wine! ;) And then we moved onto the Harp and Rose managed to convince them to stay open another hour or so even though they were just about to close. Yay social sec! Eventually we ended up at the site of the old mattress fort, which is, alas, no more. Still, it was a good night, and I'm really glad to see that certain people are friends again.
And then yesterday... I ended up in the Harp again. Saw quite a few people that I've seen before recently and also Sally who I've not seen since the first week or so of the semeseter, so yay for that. :) The Harp's not a bad pub anyway. It's not exactly the Tap and Spile, but it is the nearest good pub to my house.
Damon's party tonight. The mysterious land of Garth calls. I've only been there once before and that was when it was still JMJ. :p
The ROSTRA Christmas meal happened on Wednesday night. I had to miss most of it because I was stuck in work but I managed to sneak in sometime between the main course and dessert. It seemed like quite a few people had taken advantage of the free wine! ;) And then we moved onto the Harp and Rose managed to convince them to stay open another hour or so even though they were just about to close. Yay social sec! Eventually we ended up at the site of the old mattress fort, which is, alas, no more. Still, it was a good night, and I'm really glad to see that certain people are friends again.
And then yesterday... I ended up in the Harp again. Saw quite a few people that I've seen before recently and also Sally who I've not seen since the first week or so of the semeseter, so yay for that. :) The Harp's not a bad pub anyway. It's not exactly the Tap and Spile, but it is the nearest good pub to my house.
Damon's party tonight. The mysterious land of Garth calls. I've only been there once before and that was when it was still JMJ. :p
Wednesday 7 December 2011
As I sit here, writing my blog with the sun shining on the screen...
... I'm reminded yet again how much the upstairs windows in Deniol need blinds.
Anyhow... yesterday I actually stared writing my play. I should probably give a little bit of background for this. Basically, a few days ago I went on TV Tropes and hit Random five times, and now I'm going to write a play using the five tropes I got. Might end up with something quite interesting. Luckily I didn't end up with anything that wouldn't work in a play context, although one of them was really annoying to get. I did the first scene. Yay.
But then when I tried to open it today all I found was a broken shortcut. Seems the bloody thing has been deleted or something. Now I'm going to have to do it all over again. Not happy.
And what other news? I ended up in Academi for Love Music Hate Homphobia last night. There was some umm-ing and aaah-ing about BEDS people coming out which didn't happen (though I did see Damon there), but I ended up going there with other people instead. It wasn't anywhere near as busy as I expected, and though I don't like really busy places anyway it was still a shame as I'm pretty sure it was meant to be a fundraiser. Plus most of the music was shite. Still, I did bump into Hayley there, which was good as our path's don't cross all that often.
See you later!
Anyhow... yesterday I actually stared writing my play. I should probably give a little bit of background for this. Basically, a few days ago I went on TV Tropes and hit Random five times, and now I'm going to write a play using the five tropes I got. Might end up with something quite interesting. Luckily I didn't end up with anything that wouldn't work in a play context, although one of them was really annoying to get. I did the first scene. Yay.
But then when I tried to open it today all I found was a broken shortcut. Seems the bloody thing has been deleted or something. Now I'm going to have to do it all over again. Not happy.
And what other news? I ended up in Academi for Love Music Hate Homphobia last night. There was some umm-ing and aaah-ing about BEDS people coming out which didn't happen (though I did see Damon there), but I ended up going there with other people instead. It wasn't anywhere near as busy as I expected, and though I don't like really busy places anyway it was still a shame as I'm pretty sure it was meant to be a fundraiser. Plus most of the music was shite. Still, I did bump into Hayley there, which was good as our path's don't cross all that often.
See you later!
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