A very Brooksie update
Once again it's been a while since I've penned an entry for this blog of mine. I blame the enthralling fortnight-plus that was the Beijing Olympics for getting me off track here.
OK so I'm not one for excuses, but watching those events really was an attention-grabbing, time-sucking experience as I'm sure it was for the rest of you who enjoy that sort of thing. My routine was such that I'd watch the main broadcast on TVNZ and when they'd either go to commercial or to an event I wasn't quite keen on, I'd swivel around 180 degrees in my chair and focus on the computer. There, I had TVNZ's website loaded up where they had four different channels streaming events not on the main television broadcast. Between the two mediums of internet and television, I was pretty well unable to focus on anything but the Olympics. Often, before I knew it, it would be well-past midnight on a work night!
Now that a sense of normalcy has returned to my life, lately I've been trying to go to as many improv shows as I can, since I am unable to join the Troupe for training until probably next year. If I'm not at one of WIT's shows on a Wednesday night I'm in yet another acting class I've signed up for on Monday nights. I've taken all of the improv acting classes WIT has to offer, so I've found another set of night classes offered through the Wellington Performing Arts Centre. These are mostly dance classes but they also have a few levels of theatrical and screen acting on offer. We are nearing the end of the First Level of the 10-week course, with our last class slated for this coming Monday night. It's been a good experience and luckily I'm able to continue with it for a second 10-week session, as we are all about to become 'Level Two' actors.
Sweet! Get me Spielberg on the phone. I think that's what Level Two must mean, right?
Yeah, right.
For our next block of classes, and I think all of us are staying on for it except for my Dutch friend Dana who is sadly leaving New Zealand, we are going to go about it with the goal of putting together a scene or a short one-act play at the end of it. This is rather ambitious, given that we only meet once a week and even then for only 90 minutes. But we will see how it goes and I'm sure we'll learn a lot along the way. As with the other classes I've taken since moving to Wellington, this one is filled with people of several different nationalities. There are about a dozen of us regulars, and amongst our lot we can count two Irish girls, a Dutch girl, a Chinese guy, a British girl and I am the only American this time around. The rest are all Kiwis and at the beginning we had a guy from South Africa but he decided not to stay with the program.
For the next part of this update, please take sixty seconds to watch this here clip from 3rd Rock From The Sun:
Lately I've become a little too much like Dick Solomon in that clip. Unlike Dick at the end of the episode, I'd like to fit better in my pants again by actually losing the weight and not just buying bigger pants, as he did. Wish me luck. I know it's going to take a while but I've gotten into a good routine lately. What with daylight savings on the way here soon, I'll be able to walk up Cannon Point again after work without having to bring along a headlamp, flashlight and walking stick just to try and avoid massive injury. I want to exercise but I don't want to risk life and limb in the process!
There are no more operas or symphonies for me the rest of this year, but I will certainly be a supporter of the New Zealand Opera again next year. I'm looking forward to seeing Chris Brown (from Tappahannock, yo!) and Rihanna in concert together at the end of October. Should be a great show and tickets for that sold out very fast so I was lucky to get them when I did.
My friends Sarah and Simon are getting married the weekend after that concert and soon after that they're off to England for an OE (Overseas Experience - it's a Kiwi thing) for a couple of years. Although I've not seen them much lately as Simon's been working in Aussie the past few months I will certainly miss their company when they go, and we'll miss Sarah at work for sure. But they promise they are coming back and, hopefully, they'll decide to come back to Wellington. We'll see.
Well that's it really. Nothing terribly exciting but life is good and interesting and I have absolutely no complaints. I've also been Warcraft-free for almost a year now, so that is also a good thing. Great game, but it demands far too much of your free time so that it becomes your so-called social life as you will have no time for a proper one outside of the game. If many of your 'real-life' friends play and enjoy it, then by all means sign up! As nobody I know here plays Warcraft, and as there are far more engaging things out there for me than a computer game, I have relegated the game discs to 'coaster' status and it's nothing but an anxious memory for me.
All right, I'm gonna go see if I can find some free dance lessons on YouTube or something. I don't want to make a complete jackass out of myself at Sarah's wedding reception, so I need to be able to 'bust' at least two or three moves to maintain a respectable presence on the dance floor. I could dance OK back in college but that's been an uncomfortably long while ago, and what with all the acting classes lately it's left precious little time in the schedule for dance lessons. So I need to brush up on my coordination, preferably in the privacy of my own home behind drawn curtains. Maybe I can improve my abilities (such as they are) from 'Frighteningly Bad' to 'Mildly Humourous' on the dance floor. I am hoping for lots of strobe lights, as they make everyone come up aces out on the floor. A good crowd into which I can blend myself would be a welcome bonus, too.
God help us if they have a karaoke machine at this reception.
OK so I'm not one for excuses, but watching those events really was an attention-grabbing, time-sucking experience as I'm sure it was for the rest of you who enjoy that sort of thing. My routine was such that I'd watch the main broadcast on TVNZ and when they'd either go to commercial or to an event I wasn't quite keen on, I'd swivel around 180 degrees in my chair and focus on the computer. There, I had TVNZ's website loaded up where they had four different channels streaming events not on the main television broadcast. Between the two mediums of internet and television, I was pretty well unable to focus on anything but the Olympics. Often, before I knew it, it would be well-past midnight on a work night!
Now that a sense of normalcy has returned to my life, lately I've been trying to go to as many improv shows as I can, since I am unable to join the Troupe for training until probably next year. If I'm not at one of WIT's shows on a Wednesday night I'm in yet another acting class I've signed up for on Monday nights. I've taken all of the improv acting classes WIT has to offer, so I've found another set of night classes offered through the Wellington Performing Arts Centre. These are mostly dance classes but they also have a few levels of theatrical and screen acting on offer. We are nearing the end of the First Level of the 10-week course, with our last class slated for this coming Monday night. It's been a good experience and luckily I'm able to continue with it for a second 10-week session, as we are all about to become 'Level Two' actors.
Sweet! Get me Spielberg on the phone. I think that's what Level Two must mean, right?
Yeah, right.
For our next block of classes, and I think all of us are staying on for it except for my Dutch friend Dana who is sadly leaving New Zealand, we are going to go about it with the goal of putting together a scene or a short one-act play at the end of it. This is rather ambitious, given that we only meet once a week and even then for only 90 minutes. But we will see how it goes and I'm sure we'll learn a lot along the way. As with the other classes I've taken since moving to Wellington, this one is filled with people of several different nationalities. There are about a dozen of us regulars, and amongst our lot we can count two Irish girls, a Dutch girl, a Chinese guy, a British girl and I am the only American this time around. The rest are all Kiwis and at the beginning we had a guy from South Africa but he decided not to stay with the program.
For the next part of this update, please take sixty seconds to watch this here clip from 3rd Rock From The Sun:
Lately I've become a little too much like Dick Solomon in that clip. Unlike Dick at the end of the episode, I'd like to fit better in my pants again by actually losing the weight and not just buying bigger pants, as he did. Wish me luck. I know it's going to take a while but I've gotten into a good routine lately. What with daylight savings on the way here soon, I'll be able to walk up Cannon Point again after work without having to bring along a headlamp, flashlight and walking stick just to try and avoid massive injury. I want to exercise but I don't want to risk life and limb in the process!
There are no more operas or symphonies for me the rest of this year, but I will certainly be a supporter of the New Zealand Opera again next year. I'm looking forward to seeing Chris Brown (from Tappahannock, yo!) and Rihanna in concert together at the end of October. Should be a great show and tickets for that sold out very fast so I was lucky to get them when I did.
My friends Sarah and Simon are getting married the weekend after that concert and soon after that they're off to England for an OE (Overseas Experience - it's a Kiwi thing) for a couple of years. Although I've not seen them much lately as Simon's been working in Aussie the past few months I will certainly miss their company when they go, and we'll miss Sarah at work for sure. But they promise they are coming back and, hopefully, they'll decide to come back to Wellington. We'll see.
Well that's it really. Nothing terribly exciting but life is good and interesting and I have absolutely no complaints. I've also been Warcraft-free for almost a year now, so that is also a good thing. Great game, but it demands far too much of your free time so that it becomes your so-called social life as you will have no time for a proper one outside of the game. If many of your 'real-life' friends play and enjoy it, then by all means sign up! As nobody I know here plays Warcraft, and as there are far more engaging things out there for me than a computer game, I have relegated the game discs to 'coaster' status and it's nothing but an anxious memory for me.
All right, I'm gonna go see if I can find some free dance lessons on YouTube or something. I don't want to make a complete jackass out of myself at Sarah's wedding reception, so I need to be able to 'bust' at least two or three moves to maintain a respectable presence on the dance floor. I could dance OK back in college but that's been an uncomfortably long while ago, and what with all the acting classes lately it's left precious little time in the schedule for dance lessons. So I need to brush up on my coordination, preferably in the privacy of my own home behind drawn curtains. Maybe I can improve my abilities (such as they are) from 'Frighteningly Bad' to 'Mildly Humourous' on the dance floor. I am hoping for lots of strobe lights, as they make everyone come up aces out on the floor. A good crowd into which I can blend myself would be a welcome bonus, too.
God help us if they have a karaoke machine at this reception.
Comments
May the god of weight loss be with you!