radiopeter

Twelve hours from now we’ll be opening this season’s Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer. I’m excited, nervous, happy, and basically feel like I’m going to explode with energy. I love this feeling, and I love the feeling that everyone involved has come together. That unity is my favorite thing about performing.

We’ve been doing hours and hours of rehearsal, all to get this show off the ground. And for the ten year anniversary of Rudolph, this show is going to kick some tail. We’re already sold out for Saturday night, and I suspect I’ll be reporting many more sell-outs as the run progresses. As much as I like playing to a packed house, I’m happier that the show will be making money for Handbag Productions, my company. Well not my company, but the one I work with. Money is good and money means more opportunities for the company to do great productions.

I just talked with my mother about when she is coming to see the show. She’ll be bringing her friend Marlene, who I’ve known all my life. The two of them are great together, bickering, joking, pointing out each other’s flaws, and being good friends. I wouldn’t ever change them, and I hope that as I continue to grow up (I still feel like a little kid around them) I’ll have people in my life who stick around 30+ years.

I can’t help but look back to last year. I wasn’t involved in the theatre scene at all. Now I am. Thank you Richard Bluestein for introducing me to David Cerda at the taping of the original Caged Dames. It was one of those moments in my life where everything changed. I didn’t know it then, but really, when those moments-in-between-moments happen, you never really know how pivotal things are until much later.

Just goes to show you that every time you meet someone new, no matter how brief the encounter is, it can become a major event in your life. October 25th 2006, the day I met Miz-ster David Cerda, will remain etched in my brain forever.

Christmastown is beginning to take shape. Tonight we run with as much costume as we have and makeup. The show opens Friday. I’d write more, but my brain is fried and work is CRAZY today.

It’s Tuesday and it feels like I’ve had the longest week EVER. Work is busier than it’s ever been before because of some massive projects coming close to completion. I can’t even believe how much change is happening on the cusp of release, but there you go. That’s why I have a job right?

Rehearsal was much shorter than expected last night, but we had a chance to see the costumes and feel out the space. We didn’t have walls for our stage. They should be in place for the runs tonight and the dancing will then iron itself out.

I’m terrified that the show opens in four days. Not because I’m going to be bad, but because I feel like I have so many unanswered questions. There are a million variables still unsolved, but they’ll come together during the remaining evenings this week. The biggest is the million costume changes we (the elves) face. It’ll sort itself out, but I have a healthy fear of the many faces I’ll wear :-)

Here’s hoping Christmastown feels more alive this evening!

Ok, so it’s taken forever for me to get this together. But iMovie ‘08 and I hung out for about an hour and I produced this vidjo. The app isn’t ideal by any stretch, but it’s good for what it is, and I was able to get this together relatively quickly. I love the integration with all the other apps.

Check out the rest of the photos from the Johnny Dangerous vidjo shoot!

You may have noticed that I posted my most recent video podcast to Viddler as well as on the podcast feed.. I’m going to make a habit of a) doing more video work, and b) posting to Viddler because the video interface is fan-freaking tastic. You can add a comment mid-video. They are represented by the little dots in the time line. As the video plays, when it hits the comment, it appears as a little bubble. You have to have a Viddler account to comment, but it’s free, so sign up.

Viddler is genius and I love the interface way more than YouTube. They also seem to process videos faster than YouTube (thank god) so I’m gonna continue to use them, and I encourage you to as well.

My first podcast made on my iMac in iMovie ‘08. Thanksgiving thoughts and stuff. So here ya go.

All I can muster is one single word.

Amazing. Can I marry my iMac?

My iMac arrived two days early. Thank you Apple!!

I’m staring at the box and can’t unpack it because I’m at work. I’m praying they’ll let us go at 2pm like they usually do on the day before a holiday.

I may just have to shoot a vidjo podcast tonight and push it out!!!

Tonight for the first time I’ll be powering up my Kenwood TS-570DG and having a listen to the airwaves. I got the radio weeks ago but I didn’t have a power supply for it or an antenna or the cables to hook up the antenna. But tonight, it’s all lining up.

I’m not licensed to transmit on much, but I may try 10 meters SSB (28.300 MHz – 28500 MHz) with my 570, but I’m not interested in calling CQ (which means I’d be looking for someone to respond to my signal.) At this point I’m just looking to see what I can hear, and to possibly pick up some of the propagation beacons around the world.

Why? Well, it sorta works like this: There are amateur radio stations all over the globe that send out signals on different frequencies on a regular basis. They do them in repeatable patterns, at repeatable times throughout the day. A good way to determine if the radio frequency you are on is “open”, or capable of good propagation (that is, traveling well through the atmosphere) is by listening for the beacons. If you can hear them, the frequency may be open to you. It’s a good way to understand what is happening in the atmosphere with radio waves. There are thousands of factors that combine to increase or reduce propagation, so listening for the beacons is one way to figure it all out.

So tonight I’m going to connect up all my gear, put my headphones on, crack open the manual of my radio, and find out what I can hear.

Now this is scary.

I had a handful of the cast from Rudolph over on Saturday night to share a viewing of the original Rankin Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Some folks brought food, some brought beer, but all brought good times and good seasonal cheer. It was awesome to hang out with everyone and chat, plus during the show we were all giggly and making jokes. It turned out to be a fantastically chill evening for everyone.

And as usual, my cats became the star of the party. Meo pranced around and rode on folks shoulders until he ended up bedding down and sleeping on Steve’s lap during the movie. Oberon, skittish as usual, eventually warmed up to everyone, but not before burying himself in the pile of jackets in the bedroom.

The food was awesome. I made curried chicken salad, spinach-dill dip, little weenies in BBQ sauce, pita chips, artichoke dip, a plate of raw veggies, and a pan of cinnamon rolls. Robert brought chili and cinnamon crisp with tons of ice cream.

I like parties at my house. I like ‘em a lot.

So I went and did it this morning. I’ve ordered an iMac. This will be my first taste of Leopard. Once the new machine comes in and I migrate most of my iTunes library over to the ginormous HD that will be in the new machine, I’m going to update my PowerBook to Leopard. I’ll also need to upgrade the memory on my PowerBook, but that comes later.

Video blogging on the real, here I come!

Inquiring minds want to know!

Next week I’m going to be in a video with my friend Johnny Dangerous. I’m THRILLED to be a part of the production but I honestly have no clue what I’m going to be doing. Maybe getting spanked. Maybe worshiping a hairy armpit. Or maybe just looking into the camera concupiscently.

con·cu·pis·cent·lyadj. from the Latin concupiscere - to long for
With strong desire, especially sexual desire; lustfully.

The song title, I believe, is “Dirty Is The New Black”. Brilliant title, inn’it? So we’ll see. We’re shooting in some alleys around Chicago and then in the back room at Spin. Thankfully I don’t have Rudolph rehearsal those days.

SPEAKING of Rudolph, last night we met with the costumer who is a gem of a gal. She was giggling during the run through and watched us carefully as we were all dancing. I half-joked that I wanted knee pads for the Britney number. I really would, but I doubt we’ll get them. But it would be freaking hy-larious if we did have ‘em.

Check out more press pics and show details on the Handbag Website.