Author: grid

It has now been over two weeks since Laura and I broke up. On one hand, that seems like not all that long a time has passed, but mentally, it feels as though it has been years. I am able to write her an email now without feeling a giant pit of horror in my stomach, and that’s (obviously) a big step. We are supposed to meet next tuesday and discuss the CD situation… (She separated them, and I can think of at least six CDs I owned that she does not that are missing from my collection. There are supposedly duplicate CDs in piles on my floor that I have yet to put away.)

I want to thank everyone for being so supportive. I have really felt everyone “being there” for me, and there are probably twice as many people who have offered to lend an ear as there are people I’ve made suffer through my depressing chatter, so even if I haven’t ranted at you, please know that I appreciate you anyway. Most of the times I’ve really “let it all out” have been circumstantial anyway, and there are at least a couple of times I’ve talked about things with people I wouldn’t have otherwise brought into my confidence necessarily. (Don’t worry, I’m sure that’s not you!)

Ren Fest has been extremely therapeutic. I have been rather promiscuous in the last couple of weeks, and perhaps obviously that would not be possible without fest as a backdrop. I’m actually going to try and tone that down a bit now. I realize there are other people’s emotions involved, and with that realization comes a certain amount of guilt. I also know on some level that I am nowhere near ready for another relationship, and yet I also feel very close to falling into something relatively serious. (Just the fact that I am even considering such a thing seems an indication of my relative mental recovery.)

So yeah, my point was to say thanks… and now I’m just rambling.

Next monday is talk like a pirate day. The Monday after that Four Tet is doing a show, and the Monday after that the Mates of State are playing. (Both shows are at the Triple Rock.)

If anyone would like to acompany me to either show, please let me know. At this point I’m planning on going all by my lonesome.

What else has happened in my absense of titillating blog updates? Well, the biggest thing for those of you who have not already heard (and if you have not, please forgive me, I have not exactly wanted to talk about this), is that Laura and I broke up last Monday. It has now officially been a week, although I suppose technically it happened much later in the day.

She had been home for a little over a week at that point from her month in switzerland, and claims she just didn’t miss me as much as she’d expected to while she was away. She did not treat “us” with much enthusiasm or respect in that week, and I knew pretty early that something was up. There were some unfortunate events which led up to the breakup itself that I have not decided whether or not to relay here. Let it suffice to say that she is obviously not having any problems “moving on”, and clearly didn’t find our four-year relationship (coupled with my birthday, for that matter) nearly as important as someone she’d only just met upon her return. Maybe someday I’ll attempt to write a bit about how I feel our open relationship failed in that last week, but I’d rather just call it a lack of communication… something common in most floundering relationships, I’m sure. (Especially when one party is no doubt trying to decide whether they want it to be over.)

So anyway, lets hope the coming Mondays are better than last week’s. And do let me know if you can make either of those shows.

I just ate a piece of pizza that sat overnight on the coffee table.

This morning I threw a load of laundry into the washing machine that contained lights, darks, cottons and delicates.

Zelda has taken to walking the house meowing loudly to himself. When I try to console him, he will often let me actually hold him in my arms for a bit (something he almost never does).

Hmm. I guess that’s it for now. I’ve spent too much time today on flickr. I discovered geobloggers from the flickr blog, and also read an article about how flickr got started, and their development process. Oh how I would love to work on something as cool as flickr. Their collaborative development sounds really sweet too. Now if only laura didn’t have my (our) camera… but then I guess we wouldn’t see pictures like this one from Switzerland. (The LG indicates she took it. There are 11 of them with cameras on the trip, so I guess there are a lot of pictures to choose from at the end of every day.)

Lets face it, I am not a theater person. I’m a hobbyist juggler and unicycler, with healthy appreciation for fine arts in general, and a more than passing fancy for circus themes.

That having been said, here are some reviews of the fringe shows I’ve seen so far. I was going to rate them all, but I realized I would have probably rated everything a 4, so I just left them all off.

No Name Jugglers Live
This is my brother and a good friend, so I can’t really say anything unbiased, but I do think they are both really excellent jugglers and quite passable performers. If you want to see some good juggling, they’re it this year in the fringe.

Unicycle Showcase
This is my show, and I won’t apologize for it (anymore). The thing is, in retrospect, I don’t think I should have apologized in the first place. I think we did a great job with the performers at hand, and there is DEFINITELY nowhere else you’re going to see unicycling like this in a theater setting. I have great performers, and am just lucky that anyone showed up at all.

Adventures in Mating
Absolutely fucking hilarious. The opening monologue alone was worth the price of admission. It felt borderline sketch comedy at times, and the gimmick (choose-your-own adventure) felt a little forced (the waiter made a couple of the choices for us), but it was a great show none-the-less.

GaME (Give a Man Enough)
This was definitely interesting enough for me to recommend it. I guess it was military themed physical comedy, with some touching moments of humanity all told without any discernable dialogue. I’m sure they didn’t want to use the word “mime” in the show description, so they used “clowning” instead, but neither word really describes this adequately. I would have liked to see more rope-play, but ultimately, this was a great show.

The Scrimshaw Show
If you’ve never seen the Scrimshaw’s show before, shame on you. This is sketch comedy at its finest, with a bit of improve at the end for good measure. I particularly liked the musical edge that Pablo gave everything. He’s a good match for the Scrimshaws.

I’m Sorry and I’m Sorry
Brilliant!!! Any show that compares itself to Cirque du Soleil is on dangerous ground, as far as I’m concerned, but in this case, they took a couple of Cirque-esque clown characters, and created a really great story for them to unravel for us on stage. Was it comedy, or was it tragedy? I really enjoyed this show and might even try to see it again if I get a chance.

10-Speed Revolution
Quite good: witty and complex, this show was a roller coaster ride of anarchist and punk dogma combined with a fun story and interesting punk-caricature characters. I hadn’t expected to suspend quite that much disbelief, but I didn’t really have any trouble shrugging and going along with the gangs of mercenary bike couriers taking down the bike-lock company’s corporate puppet government. And the soundtrack rocked!

Quarter Life Crisis
Ultimately, this was an emotional drama about a couple in a long-term relationship who don’t quite have it all figured out yet. But the show was punctuated by moments of surrealist comedic brilliance that would never have worked with a less dynamic cast. Well worth your time, highly recommended. There were parts that were easily as funny as anything in Adventures in Mating. (It’s an inevitable comparison, with similar sets, premise, and cast of characters.)

I posted a few of these on the fringe site, but these are the “unrefined” versions. (I guess you’re not supposed to compare one fringe show to another, or your review gets categorically thrown out.)

We have our second Unicycle Showcase show tonight at 8:30. Just thinking about it gives me stupid butterflies.

The Minneapolis Fringe Festival starts today, and Unicycle Theater (that’s me and a bunch of other unicyclists) have a show tonight at the MCTC Whitney Mainstage at 8:30. I will be cramming fringe shows in all next week as I have time. Let me know if you’re going to some and I’d love to hook up with people.

More photos up on my flickr account. (Thanks again massdistraction!) Most notably a few of my brother’s gallery opening tonight, and a bunch of the sailboating adventure I had today (yesterday now).

I <3 flickr.

So yeah, I also just discovered and then added my photos to the convergence group, and the last two hours or so is history. Interesting tidbit–I’m fairly sure one of the other members is this hottie. She spent some time in our party when I was the only host, and I was far too drunk to tell tell for sure if she was hitting on me. (But boy did I want her to be!)

I am at a friend’s house right now, in the basement being antisocial while everyone else is upstairs watching Sin City. I’ve seen it, and don’t really need to see it again.

Today I bought a Nintendo DS just to play this new puzzle game called Meteos. It truly is awesome, and I agree wholeheartedly with the guy who told me it was just as good a game as Lumines. (Of course, I have only played it a scant few hours at this point, but that is my impression thus far.) Anyway, it is by far the best of today’s game purchases.

As far as I can tell from watching over Laura’s shoulder, the new Kirby game also kicks ass. (We now have all the Kirby games again. *sigh of relief*) I also bought Polarium, which seems pretty cool, but nowhere near as intricate as Meteos, and Zoo Keeper–another Bejewled clone. I still have yet to pick up Mr. Driller, and then I should have all the puzzle games I want for the system right now. I did look at Puyo Pop for a bit in the store, but I don’t really need another version of that shitty game. Pac-Pics also does look interesting, but reviews seem mixed. I want to play it before I decide.

I can’t figure out whether I really like controlling stuff with the stylus or not. Metios would probably not be quite as fast paced without it, but it can be frustrating to get the hang of “selecting” the right piece to move. There is so much to do in Metios, I can’t wait to get home and play it again!

Feelings are so subjective. Today I feel fine. Today I felt not so fine. Today I did not feel felt.

I’ve been trying to write in my journal every day (failing), and also trying to blog more frequently, without resorting to blogging about the things I’m journaling about. The journal is for how I felt today, the blog is for what those feelings meant in the grand scheme of the universe.

The blog is suffering — I feel a lot more than I ponder the universe, apparently.

I’ve been playing a lot of games. And I like games quite a bit. In fact, I was in a house yesterday with literally thousands of games in the basement. It was a shit ton of games. We played three or four of them, and then I went to a party where I was the oldest person there. Actually, I’m not sure, there may have been one guy older than me, but certainly the average age of people in attendance was much lower than mine. I felt old, and also far too sober. (I was driving.)

Point? Oh yes, the point was going to be that I feel the occasional pang of jealousy that I am not as “social” as other people. I don’t “go out” all that often, and I don’t meet new people all that often either. But I guess one doesn’t always mean the other, so I don’t even know if this is what I mean to say. This clearly has something to do with my pathetic obsession with okcupid. Pathetic because I am not single, I am not desperately seeking susan… and yet I check this stupid website at least every other day, not to answer inane questions about my personal romantic preferences, but because I hope that someone I know (or better yet don’t know) will have sent me a message.

I probably have issues.

I’m trying to come to terms with the fact that Laura is going to be out of town for something like a month starting less than a month from now. I’m trying to consider what I’m going to do while she’s away. I’m trying to consider what I’m not going to do while she’s away, and one of the things I’m not going to do is be all pathetic and lonely about spending time by myself. Or rather, that’s one of the things I’m going to spend a considerable amount of time trying to pretend I’m not doing. Probably.

Sometime soon maybe I’ll write a recap of the con, but for now, you can see photos I took last weekend on my flickr account. (Someday I’ll add it to my list of nav links, probably.)

PS, I found Tales of Future Past today, and am both excited to pour over it, and also frustrated that they did it first. (I’ve always wanted to do some kind of survey of “ideas” about the future.)