Photo Hunters: Rock(s)

I haven't done this in a while, but I figure better late than never.

One of my favorite things in my childhood was walking on the rocks along the river at Sand Point Park in Florida. These are from Hong Kong (Stanley Market), but it was still exhilarating to watch the water break over and to walk among these rock(s).

Photo Hunter

Irony Never Fails

Here's the first irony which is closer to a catch-22 really. When I have time to blog that usually means that nothing is happening. Literally. Nothing. However, whenever something is happening, particularly if they're exciting somethings, I do not have the time to pop online for a quick and quirky anecdote.

All this to segue into a complaint that I have had virtually nothing to do this summer. Between cooking regularly (and washing a lot of dishes), reading several books, seeing friends, watering the lawn, watching way too much TV, and checking my email entirely too often, I still have many open hours for computer games, sleeping late, going out of town, and redying my hair blue. Beyond that, I have time to stare at the wall, wish I had something to do, and still have very little information worth mentioning to an outside party.

I went to a couple of rehearsals for Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well with my Baylor friend, Victoria, who is playing the lead. I was hoping to help, but the play is part of a festival so the theatre is providing most of the technical support. I did however enjoy meeting and listening to the director, who is very knowledgable and friendly. He was in Miss Congeniality :) Victoria and I watched it one day and were delighted to recognize him for his five minute appearance!

In pursuing this, I was afraid that I had missed the opportunity to volunteer for a production of The Music Man. Randomly, a Baylor guy, Carl, who graduated two years ago contacted me about volunteering as a dresser for the show. I hate anything costume related, but was desperate enough to agree. Rehearsals and the first weekend of performance was last week and the show runs every weekend until August 15; a week before I need to be in Waco. After being there a week, I am glad I ended up on the costume crew since the crews I would have volunteered for seem sketchy. Carl is a professional, so I'm learning a lot about costume crew that I never knew and need to know. I also enjoy the cast--they take a lot in stride. It's outdoor theatre, which is a new experience, but I like being outside and (fortunately) I like the show.

The irony continues in this: the day after I started working for the show that would tie up most of my nights for the rest of the summer I got a call from Express offering me a job. Express was the first store to interview me and even called me back to say they were having trouble getting in touch with one of my references which was the only hang-up. Then I went for almost a month without hearing from them. Apparently, the manager had moved my application into the orientation folder early since she had been planning to hire me, then couldn't find it when she wanted to call me and had no way of contacting me. She finally found it and still wanted to hire me. It's a little annoying that it took so long for the job to come through, but I suspect that will make her more sympathetic to my show schedule. If she had hired me earlier, I don't think I would have been able to do both.

So, I am making the shift from nothing to full days again and as usual it all comes at the same time in ways I didn't expect. It couldn't have come too soon!

And just for the sake of this post, I'll share one more irony. As I was thinking about what to put in this post (early!) this morning, I was opening the door to lug sprinkler hoses around the sticky grass when the breakfast I had been waiting on popped out of the toaster. Go figure, right?

A New Den for the Salazars

First day in the new home (please forgive the backlighting):

Miguel found for himself a nice place to lounge...and roar.

In such a crazy day, David kept finding things to hug.  As he told me, Guanabana was his "secondary huggie" and Coke Bear was his "firstendary huggie"

"I'm not even tired!"

Alex found a quarter and wanted to play with it, so he asked for "Heads or Iowas"

We went to Texas Roadhouse for Andres' birthday and, no, we didn't make him sit on the saddle and have it yelled out to the restaurant that he was turning 25.  What we did have was Rachel drawing on a box.  You decide for yourself which is more entertaining, but I think we know where the boys stand.

A Simple Truth

When my brother and sister-in-law returned from their two week sabbatical, they brought me this from a decorative glass place.  They were with my sister's family at the time and apparently they all agreed that it was perfect for me.  I agree.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Andres!  Keep celebrating until you get a cake...or Marble Slab!

Photo Hunter: Flags

I only have one: This was taken in Juarez, Mexico from the dingy building in which we had our meals and worship services. I like the window pane and the rooftop and how despite the dust and the distance, this flag is proudly waving.

Photo Hunter

Antigone

In my history of design class our final was to do a project in the style of any designer.  This could be a costume rendering, a lighting storyboard, an aural collage, etc.  I decided to do a sound design in the style of Dan Moses Scherier.  This is the description of his first professional sound design: scraps of movie music, pounding heartbeats, rhythmic chants, loud breathing, deafening electronic blasts.  Reading this, I immediately thought of the version of Antigone I light designed sophomore year.  I took piece's from Becca's script and using as few words as possible I told the story using music and sound effects to fill in the rest.  I have my own flair in there of course, but I think Dan Moses would like the style and the effect.  

I've been wanting to post this for a while, but Blogger doesn't really support audio.  Finally my sister suggested that I make a video and hide the screen.  However, I also have a lot of good pictures from my light design that I can claim as my work, so I made a slideshow to go with the story.  Enjoy! (One thing, it starts off very quietly so don't adjust the volume until you're about 15 seconds in)

Furthermore, our final project for scene design was to completely design and do a half-scale model of any play.  I chose Antigone for this as well, thinking that a Greek play would lend itself well to any style I wanted.  Also, Becca's scene did not have a set so I knew I would not be influenced by my light design experience.  However, the more I got into it and the more I looked at other people's work I realized that the best Greek plays, especially Antigone, don't have sets.  Realistic sets, Greek or modern, look ridiculous and totally overwhelm the actors and undermine the play.  Therefore, my design is quite simple, but I am pleased with it.

I chose to have an altar center stage that has three rings around it.  The rings are all elevators so that there can be many variations to the altar's position.  There can be steps up or down or it could be level with the stage.  In the end, I wanted Antigone to ride down on it and have the altar become her tomb.  The background is a dual image of the palace and the desert; the richness unable to cover up the desolation that Creon has created.  To me, it is the image of the "whitewashed tomb" from the Bible.  It's simple, but I like it (if only the steamer had been working).

So this all is a very, very small slice of my classwork: the things that keep me up all night ;)