A Child Of Atom

Get your here.

Things I learned this week:

•Lumber yards in Rhode Island inexplicably stock white pine in 8' or 16' 2x4 lengths, but not the 10' that I would have found useful. 8' was too short... 16' I couldn't transport.

•Once again lighting designers prove to be some of the single most infuriating people on the face of the planet. Three times in my life I have actually felt the real urge to do physical harm to someone. All three times it was a lighting designer.

•12' x 24' is not enough space to house a 27 piece orchestra, especially if it includes a tympani, a harp, and a 400 lb french horn player. 14' x 24' seems to work.

•The scope of work of a project will always swell to fill a budget. If I have $1000 I'll spend $1000. If I have $10,000 then I'll spend it, even if my initial estimates were less than half that. Something will happen... like maybe adding 2 extra feet to a platform meant to house an orchestra.

•Amtrak seats are utterly impossible to get comfortable enough to sleep in. I do however appreciate that they have outlets available by the seats.

Working the opera in Connecticut for the third year also marks a more important milestone: 2 years with Kid Flash. We had our first date two years ago this week, a breakfast date the morning before I hopped the train to CT to work. What followed was a beautiful two weeks of emails getting to know my man, and then wonderful dates when I got back home. I don't think he is particularly attached to dates or anniversaries, but this time of year still gives me tingles.

I've spent the past few days in idyllic Eastern Connecticut working on the opera that I've done there for the last few years... the downshot? I neglected to pack the charger for my computer. Right now I just crawled off a commuter train (I seem to be riding a lot of those lately) and I need the bed... better updates tomorrow.

So... the ad that I posted last week. It is actually an ad for a comic book event. Marvel comics is currently running an alien invasion storyline through almost all of their books. The aliens are claiming that they are coming in to save us from ourselves, to help us fix the environment, and to end war, etc. etc. There is a small contingent of humans who are willing to "Embrace Change" and allow the aliens to take over. Now... of course there is no explanation of that in the ad. Barely even any mention of what company is responsible for the ad (you have to look quickly) and to me it just leaves the viewer wondering what the hell the ad was for! I think Marve wants this to work like a viral campaign on the web, but the problem with that is that they are running these ads mainly on ESPN and while I can see a viral ad on the web getting clicks and attention, I don't seem many people running from the game to look up the website from this ad, you know?

This ad has been running on several cable stations. I know what it's about, because I'm a huge geek, but I wonder what do the rest of you make of it?

For the past several days I have had more than my usual exposure to the commuter rail system between Connecticut and New York City. It really is amazing to me that people are willing to make an up to 3 hour a day trip from the other end of a completely different state just to work here. It has left me with a few questions though... like the large contingent of teenagers. This morning I was on the 6:30 Shoreline East and there was a rather large number of what appeared to be 16 year olds. I couldn't quite figure out where they were going. They weren't together. They didn't all get off or on at the same time, but mixed in with the standard suits and skirts was this young crowd. Who are they? Another interesting phenomenon was the "Sleeper." Every train ride I see one or two people who, no matter how crowded the train, insist on stretching out and taking 2 or 3 seats, yet even this morning when the train reached standing room capacity no one was willing to nudge the rude buggers to get a seat. These aren't the homeless people I see on the subway, who are understandably scary and best left alone, these were suit wearing grown men. Are we that afraid of telling people they are being rude? Also, and this is purley a personal gripe, why is it possible for me to buy a Shoreline East ticket at an MTA machine in Grand Central, but the same machine in New Haven won't sell me one? What glitch in the system causes that?

I'm back in Connecticut to finish up Steel Magnolias. After rehearsal tonight they dropped me off at the hotel and I walked down the street to have dinner. The closest place was a little Mexican place so I went in. The food was only so-so but on the wall was a collection of sketches and signatures from various cartoonists that have been there over the years there was Hi from Hi and Lois sketches by Mort Walker himself, as well as a Beetle Bailey. The little girl to the right of Hi looks familiar too, but I can't place her. But most importantly... that is an original Curt Swan Superman sketch! Curt was THE superman artist from the Fifties right up until the Eighties and is enormously important to comic book history, and there... amazingly, and unexpectedly was a piece of original art by home, just scribbled on a wall. It made my night.

Time for a new 12 of 12, and exciting one today full of travel, and theatre! (To view the other participants go here.)

I woke up in a strange place this morning... a hotel on the coast of Connecticut. I was in town for the last few days shopping for set dressing and getting things ready for the production of Steel Magnolias that I designed for them.

First things first... a short walk down the street to get some coffee and breakfast. This is the exterior of the theatre. Cute, huh?

This is what the scenic painter did with the paint elevation that I sent last week, so my first task this morning is to see what I can do to soften this up a bit and fix it. It will be seen through a screen door center stage for the whole show, so it needs... help.

My next task, create a "tree" outside one of the windows of the salon/set. Later this got draped in Spanish Moss.

The crew loads in the ceiling tiles for the drop ceiling on the set.

At the props storage space for the theatre rummaging for set dressing, tchatchkes and whatnot. Pretty organized for a props room I must say.

More set work. The crew manufactured those Jalousie windows by hand, from real glass because the span was too far for plexi, it started to bow.

The set from the back of the house. Quite a bit to do before opening next Friday.

More props shopping, this time at Goodwill. I found a GREAT period coffee maker, two of them in fact, though I only bought one. Makes me wonder how two early 80's coffee makers, both in good repair end up in the same Goodwill.

I have to go to another load-in, for a show that I did at my regular job tomorrow, so it was the last commuter train back to the city for me. As you can tell the 8:15 to NY isn't the most popular.

Transferring to Metro North at New Haven. I love New Haven's train station, the waiting area upstairs is very Old World, turn of the century style architecture, but the tunnels underneath are 60's futuristic modern.

Back in the city, a shot you don't see a lot, a garbage train passing through the station, thankfully empty. The smell can be pretty bad when a full one goes through!

A peek at the first of three sets that I'm working on at the moment. You'll see more of it later, and one of the others tomorrow. This one is for Peter and the Wolf, which presented me with a problem... how does one build a forest on stage? I'm pretty proud of my answer.

I haven't had access to cable tv since I moved. In some ways it's been liberating, I didn't get sucked into some poor summer replacement series, I haven't been watching crappy reruns for lack of anything else to do. But I have missed TV. I started watching several new series on DVD (via Netflix) Weeds, Brothers & Sisters, a few others, but what I've really been sucked into is foreign versions of familiar US shows that I like. I've now watched both seasons of the UK version of The Mole. The Canadian, Australian, and Philipines versions of Project Runway, Survivor UK and Australia. And there's so much more... UK versions of Top Model, and Make Me A Supermodel, as well as Australian versions of both, Amazing Race Asia (not sure that one is in English), so on and so on and so on. The great joy of the internet is that all this stuff is available out there now, and ready to be watched. I've always been the sort of person who preferred TV noise in the background to radio or anything else, so I've also taken to watching them while at work. There's a whole crazy world of TV out there just waiting. Maybe I don't need cable...


(I totally do! Amazing Race is about to start...)

You know what feels good? When someone shows appreciation for my art unexpectedly. I walked into the 5th floor of Pearl paint today (the biggest art supply store in Manhattan) and under the plexi on the counter was a poster that I did for the roller derby last season. It was a complete surprise, and a pleasant sensation. All of the counters in Pearl are covered in sketches and scraps from various art publications and magazines, and a hundred sources. But on the 5th floor, in amongst the pen and the drafting supplies and the balsa wood, is me. It felt like... validation.

Should it worry me at all that my brain has recently started confusing the keys to my apartment and my subway card? I've found myself getting to the turnstile with my apartment keys in my hand rather than my Metrocard several times. It's sort of an auotpilot thing, like how I used to attempt to get into KF's apartment using the keys to my place. My brain said "apartment key" an that was what my fingers did. I've yet to try to get into my apartment with my Metrocard though... so maybe there's hope.

A small watercolor paint elevation for the backdrop of the set I posted last week.

School started for Kid Flash today.

I have three shows in three different states opening in the next 30 days. I'll basically be spending every weekend for the next month traveling for work.

I guess summer really did end yesterday.

After nearly three months we've finally managed to complete my moving in process. The lingering bags of clothing and crap that was to be sent to Goodwill, both in the new apartment and the old, have finally gone. The last item from Ikea (two butcher block counter tops) have been modified with elements to hold them in place and they now form a beautiful new counter top in the kitchen where formerly there was just the top of the washer and dryer. Kid Flash and I opened a (for rent and utilities only) joint checking account to make that a bit easier. There are no more boxes to be unpacked. No more items to be sold or eliminated. There are a few lingering wish list items, like cleaning out the hall closet, but I figure that stuff like that never goes away. So, I can officially say that the moving in period is over, and the living together period has begun. I'm finally beginning to feel like I live here, that I know where things are, and that things are "ours" instead of his. And do you know what I think got me over the hump? The dinner I cooked on Saturday. I woned the kitchen on saturday, chopping, cooking, planning, moving, deciding on serving dishes and choosing cooking times and methods and utensils. Somehow I "broke in" the apartment, and it's mine now. The change is subtle, and probably indistinct to most, but it feels good, and real to me, and I'm happy about it.

Tomorrow's menu will include: Fried Green Tomatoes and Okra, Heirloom Gazpacho, Sauteed Radishes and Sugar Peas, Roasted Beet and Avocado Salad, Roasted Eggplant with Honey, and Blackberry Basil Crumble. Who wants to come over for dinner?

Kid Flash and I have decided that now that the apartment is finally starting to look like we live in it (rather than a bunch of gypsy vagabonds with cardboard boxes) we are going to have a few people over for dinner. I haven't settled the menu yet, but I am going to the farmer's market in the morning to see what I can find. I am REALLY looking forward to cooking. The late summer vegetables are in, when I previewed the market on Wednesday they had tons of heirloom tomatoes, (including some green ones!) eggplants, lots and lots of squash... I think it's going to be a great day. I am going to hit the market and let the muses of fresh shiny vegetables tell me what the menu is going to be and what wants to be cooked. Maybe it is even time to really get started on my quest to get some chow chow canned this summer...

How is it that no one seems to be able to hear the battery warning on their smoke alarms? Last year I went through a period where it seemed like every alarm in the building needed a new battery (NYC started requiring CO2 alarms just recently so they had all been installed at the same time, and likely the batteries all started going at the same time...). About that same time someone whose apartment faces the alley had an alarm that began making its warning, and it continued for nearly 2 months. It drove me BATTY. I sincerely don't understand why the occupant of the apartment can't hear it. A loud, single beep that repeats every 60 seconds. How does that NOT make you crazy enough to track it down and fix it? I don't get it. Tonight, I heard a beep from the alley. It has repeated every 60 seconds since then. I have no idea which building or apartment it is coming from, but it has been happening for at least 5 hours now. We'll see how many days it lasts...

I've always thought that my name was fairly unique. I haven't met very many people who shared it. It was passed down to me from my father's side of the family, specifically from my grandmother (it was her middle name.) Tonight in my ongoing genealogy research I found another family member who also has my name. Oddly enough he was on my mother's side. He's a 1st cousin, three times removed, and would have been a contemporary to my great grandmother, but Eustice Cully Pope was related to me out there somewhere.

I was in Central Park today for a geocaching event, and as I walked through something caught my eye. On the south side of the path that I was on there was a wedding taking place. It looked very sweet, the bridesmaids were all wearing white summer dresses and fairy wings. As I walked closer I noticed a photographer on the north side of the path, with a little group of people crowded around him, but the closer I got the clearer it became that he wasn't involved with the wedding, and all of his attention was focused on a pedicab. When I passed I saw why, there in the cab, not 40' from where a wedding was taking place, was a completely nude woman, posing for the photographer. How they were getting away with this at 1 in the afternoon I'll never know, know will I understand why they chose that locale for the shots. The wedding guests didn't seem to have noticed though, and everyone seemed content to go about their days. New York City I guess, what else can I say?

Yesterday in Chinatown I passed a fruit vendor on the corner, just down the street from a theatre where I am working. On their display was something I never thought to see outside of the South: muscadines! Muscadines are a sort of wild grape that grows singularly on a vine (rather than in bunches). They grow wild all over the south, besides also being cultivated. They're delicious in a very wild sort of way, tasting much less cultivated than a grape.

Muscadines! Amazing... I guess you really can find just about anything in New York City, if you know where to look.

You see that time stamp? I am headed home from work. Yes, at 5 a.m. While I was away last week a project that we are pitching sort of blew up and we have spent the last 24 hours trying to patch it and get it ready for tomorrow's pitch meeting. It's been a while since I was awake this long on a show that wasn't mine. So, sorry for the radio silence yesterday, I have a sketch I'll probably post today, but boy... I'm a bit tuckered.

I'm back in New York City. It was a highly successful trip. I accomplished just about everything that I intended to do while I was there.

The biggest thing was clearing all of the old comics and toys out of my mom's so that she can sell the house. I posted earlier that I had decided to get rid of all the toys, and I had long ago decided to get rid of the comics. I walked away from the deal $250 richer. I got about $10 per box of comics, about 3 cents a book. It was an incredibly easy sell. I hope the guy finds some useful stuff in there.

My next task was visiting some family and several sources of family information, the SC State Archives, a genealogy library in Columbia, the Newberry County Courthouse... I came away with several new pieces of information, including my great grandmother's maiden name, which no one in the family knew. (It was Griffin.) Lots of confirmations of information that I already had, and a few new mysteries, plus about 2oo photos that I scanned from my grandmother's collection, my great aunt, and my uncle. Lots of stuff to process and add to the family tree.

I did my first "extreme" geocache, a night cache that required more adventure than anything I've ever done in caching. My first "paddle cache" and my first 5-5 hiking cache. I also racked up the oldest cache I've ever found, one that has been out in the woods since 2001.

Kid Flash has met the whole family now, and gets along with and likes everyone, (not that I expected differently) but that's a huge relief.

All in all, a damn good trip.

This morning we went geocaching in the SWAMP! Kid Flash had never seen terrain like this in person before, and other than my mom and her partner none of us had ever really kayaked before. It was awesome! I didn't feel out of control, or in danger, or in fear of the water at all. It was a good time.

Sorry for the late post, just got back to my mom's after quite an adventure. Tonight we did a night geocache (sort of high tech treasure hunt with GPS units for those of you uninitiated). It involved about 3 or 4 miles of hiking, a 50' ladder, scaling a rock face, crossing a river on a zipline, solving multiple puzzles, and much much more... all at night. This cache is rated as the toughest level of cache available, a 5 out of a possible 5 on both difficulty and terrain, and you can't even start it until the sun goes down.

It was awesome!!

The 12th of August is upon is, so it's time for the 12 of 12, a project conceived by Chad Darnell. To see all the participants, check here.

I had nearly 75 shots to choose from today, a first for me, so I'll skip ahead to about 10 o'clock. My sister and I visited the SC State Archives today, continuing my family research. This was one of the other researchers at work today. Isn't she great?

There is something just so... comfortable about a microfilm machine. Simple, functional, beautiful. I came out of the archives with nearly $25 worth of photocopies.

Do you think SC is proud of its flag? This display was in the gift shop of the Archives.

Now THIS is a meal... a Pimento Cheeseburger. Standard cheeseburger with Pimento Cheese rather than a slice of American. Delicious!!

After lunch we went by Riverbanks Zoo, one of my sister's favorite destinations. I loved this elephant with the straw on his head. Because of the naturally red clay in the dirt in SC all of the elephants' skin is stained red.

My sister at the penny smasher, she collects them and was very excited to see that this machine had been fixed since it was the only one in the zoo that she didn't have all of the pennies from.

Feeding goats at the petting zoo.

A tiny dinosaur outside the bird house. I was a bit amazed that they made such an overt display of Evolutionary science at the bird house. I would have thought that would be taboo around here.

One of the gorillas sat at the very front of their enclosure, watching what was going on in the "human display" I like to believe.

My sister's cat Hansa, isn't he a handsome fellow?

My uncle gave me a briefcase full of family research that he had collected before I started. I have to return it to him tomorrow so tonight I took it to Kinkos to copy the useful stuff out of that. Another $10 in copies.

Back at my sister's I settle in to catch up on Project Runway Australia that's Mark, my favorite player, who was unfortunately eliminated tonight.

I collect comics.

I collect toys.

Or rather... collected. When Marvel owned Toy Biz and was producing 30 or 40 action figures of their characters a year I bought them. All. I have been reading, and hording, comics since I was 12. Basically if it was published by Marvel between 1984 and 1998 I bought it. The result is that I have 25 long boxes of comics, and about 500 action figures in my childhood bedroom. For those of you that don't collect comics and so have no frame of reference a long box holds about 300-350 comics. I'll let you do the math.

One of the reasons I am in SC right now is to deal with that stuff. You see, my mom is selling the house, so it all has to go. I spent a great deal of time sorting, removing the toys that I obviously no longer needed or wanted. After an hour's worth of work I had sorted it into three piles: The stuff that my mom could throw into the yard sale she was having, the stuff that I wanted to find a way to store, and the stuff that I was taking back to NYC. (That was a REALLY small pile BTW.) I stared at it for about an hour, fondly remembering that great Rogue figure based on the Joe Mad costume (that she wore for about 3 issues... sigh) and trying to figure out who the heck some of them were (X-Men 2099? Mutant X? Where did this guy come from?!) But eventually it came to me... I don't need them. I WANT them. But I don't need them. In order to properly display these things I need to either gain a huge apartment (or a house in the suburbs) or to lose Kid Flash. I don't think that either is going to happen any time soon. So I decided to let them go. I knew going in the that comics were leaving my life, but somehow I figured that the toys would be staying. I'm going to see if I can sell them along with the comics, but if not... I'll send them to Goodwill.

Besides... I already pulled out the ones that I want.

One of the goals of my trip home was to attend a family reunion, for my paternal side of the family. It was for the descendants of great grandfather, who had 7 children, and it spread from there. The thing is, other than my great aunts and uncles... there were probably 100 people in the room whom I had never laid eyes one, not in 36 years of living. To begin with I'm not the greatest at small talk with strangers, but somehow knowing that I shared DNA with these particular strangers made it even more stressful.

So I did what any good Southern boy would do, and I focused on the food. There was quite an array of it, and it was all quite good, more cheese and vegetables and fried things than you can shake a stick at, but still good.

In the end the reunion went very smoothly, everyone was friendly, and I even cleared up a couple family mysteries for my genealogy quest, and added a few pieces of family gossip and lore to the stores.

My flight was supposed to leave at 4:55. It is just past 7. My camera is in my hand, but my cable to get the pics off is in my suitcase. The wireless is intermittent, I don't even know if I'll be able to post this. They just updated the flight board and it seems I won't be taking off until 7:55 now. The guy beside me is beginning to get angry, loudly proclaiming that he won't be boarding the plane until the last possible second, because, hey, JetBlue made him wait, so he is going to make them wait.

This may in fact be hell.

UPDATE: I did not in fact get this to post from the JFK waiting area (as you can tell.) I am now at my destination and publishing from there. We were delayed again on the tarmac because just after the Captain announced that we were second in line for take off a nitwit of a woman got up to use the bathroom. Because she wasn't in her seat and the flight attendant notified the Captain we had to pull out of the line up to take off, and by the time she was safely buckled in again we were much further back in the line. I DO love traveling.

My grandfather.
My father.

This is Watch Hill, at the Fire Island National Seashore, a lovely beach side national park. An isolated part of the island only accessible by ferry, with camping, some great trails, and on this particular weekend about a bazillion mosquitoes... but still a good time. Oh, and some SUPERB people watching, care of the Long Island Boat People.