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June 23, 2005
Down Under
See why my friend Jason rocks and why everyone should go and enjoy Australia at least once.
Posted by nikl at 10:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 22, 2005
Weigh in
Bust: 37 7/8ths
Waist: 33.75
Hips: 41.5
Thigh: 25.5
I question my measurement skills. How can my waist be down and my hips UP? This explains how I can be as low as a size 6 in the waist and as high as a size 12 in the hips/thighs.
And the scale remains the SAME.
2 rounds of 9 (walking), 1 volleyball match (3 games), 1 softball game, 4 miles for Race for the Cure, 1 lunchtime walk around the Purina campus. 4 beers (3 in one night) followed by a McDonald's stop the following morning. No burgers, no pizza.
Posted by nikl at 10:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What a WASTE
I still maintain that 9 holes before work is a good thing. A few hours of fresh air, enjoying it before it's too hot and humid, exercise, etc.
However, when you play like a 10 year old, it makes for a CRAPPY start to the day. I just kep WASTING shots. Full out wasting them. SO ANNOYING.
Posted by nikl at 09:52 AM | Comments (0)
New T-Shirt
"Word processing, web design is not."
That is all.
Posted by nikl at 09:18 AM | Comments (0)
June 17, 2005
Go Cats
Go Sharif Atkins who was @ NU with us, was the main 4400 on The 4400
Posted by nikl at 10:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Nothing Like the Northeast I Tell You
Please read these two entries about Travis' train rides. A: nearly killed me, B: SO TRUE.
Rear Window Ethics: Train pt. 1
Rear Window Ethics: Train pt. 2
Posted by nikl at 02:32 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Slippity Slide
Silly, standard, AFHM fare, but made me laugh nonetheless. The prevelance of cut-off shorts is a bit disturbing though...
Posted by nikl at 01:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 15, 2005
Measure Weigh in #3 (though I skipped 2)
Scale today says 163
but the measurements:
bust: 38.5
waist: 34
hips: 41
thigh: (I'm going to have to re-measure b/c I must have measured it in the wrong place this morning)
Activities this past week were few. I think I walked one round of 9, played volleyball on Monday, and that's about it. There was beer on Sat (though only 3), and beer @ the ballgame, but only on Fri (though they were the jumbo ones and I did have 3). And there was white wine galore last night at book club.
Posted by nikl at 11:18 AM | Comments (1)
June 14, 2005
Baton Accepted
brand new passed me this about 3 weeks ago, so here goes - LATE. OW passed this to me a while back via email, but looking back, I'd say my answers have changed a bit.
Total volume of music on my computer: 6.54GB which represents 1482 songs. Not sure how many I have on my home machine at this point.
The last CD I bought: Will Smith's 
new album.
Song playing right now: Still Searchin' by Maya Azucena.
Five songs I listen to a lot, or mean a lot to me:
Double Dutch Bus by Frank E. Smith
Part IIb of The Koln Concert by Keith Jarrett
We Deserve More by Kat Parsons
Any Classic Motown (reminds me of my days w/ the CJS crew)
Anything by Maya Azucena - the first rockin' band I was in!
5 People I'm passing this to are Mike Halbrook, Strange Bungalow, G-Digit, and two more offline I suppose - those are all the bloggers I know!
Posted by nikl at 01:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 13, 2005
I Don't Own Emotion, I Rent
The trailer for the Rent movie came out last week.
I saw Rent on Broadway for the first time the Spring before I graduated - very soon after it opened in April of 1996. I remember thinking that the show was OK, I couldn't understand all of the lyrics, it was loud as all hell, but I definitely left the theatre crying. I was definitely inspired by the insane amount of energy that came flying off of the stage. And having just had my job offer at Disney fall through and deciding to move to NYC anyway, the message of "No Day But Today" definitely resonated with me.
During the first couple years of the show they would sell 20 seats in the first two rows of the center section for $20 to the first 20 people in line (10 usually, because each person could buy two) at 6pm the night of the performance. Before too many people heard about it, you could get in line around noon and get a ticket. Once school let out and word got around, it was more like 5 or 6am on weekdays and a campout on the weekends. People would travel from far and wide to spend the night in this line. And this was back before Times Square had undergone it's transformation. The New Amsterdam wasn't open, there was no Sanrio store or Ford Theatre - and the Nederlander (where Rent still plays to this day) is on 41st street - still kinda sketch at the right time of night.
The internet was a central meeting line for the folks who later became know as Rentheads. I'd like to say that I was never a complete Renthead, b/c I never spent the night in line, but "The Rent Line" was a big part of my first year in NYC. Randy and I stood in it or in it for each other numerous times. Anytime a new person would come to town, we'd send enough people to the line to make sure we all got into the show that night. Susan and I, who'd met in rec.arts.theatre.musicals in the early 90's when it was still only accessible through usnet, became close over hours in the Rent line (not even going into how many of the cast members became intertwined in her life through various chains of events). For those who know Dwayne and how close he and I are (he walked my mom down the isle at my wedding) - he and I met in the Rent line.
You simply did not go within 5 blocks of the theatre before noon without checking The Line. You would take an inventory to see how many people were in line and how many tickets they were planning to buy, do the math, and if there were still tickets to be had and whatever else you had planned that day was flexible, you parked it. If there was only one ticket left, you'd park it for yourself or someone you knew who was dying to see it. If there were a few more spaces in line you got on the phone and quick.
When it was all said and done, between The Line and purchased tickets I think that I saw the original cast perform the show at least 16 times over the course of a year or so. I went back a few other times to check out other versions of the cast. Slowly building a life, getting a more demanding job and the original cast leaving all contributed to my gradual disinterest in the show. It was soon "so 1996." The Line became a lottery system where you could walk up at 5:50pm and have a chance at getting a $20 seat at 6pm. Later casts were just unable to capture the raw energy that came from that original group of people who'd been with the show since the early readings and who lived through Jonathan's (the author) death. New experiences with the show just got further and further away from the times in 1996.
The non-equity tour of Rent came to St. Louis in January this year. Since moving in November, I had yet to really feel nostalgia for NYC. But seeing that show live again stirred it up for the first time. I think the messages in the show are universal, but there is something about New York City that makes them harder to hold on to. Being there is "about" so many things, it easy to take for granted your friends, opportunities, significant moments. Part of it seems very self indulgent, immature and disgusting to me - it's definitely part of why I enjoy living elsewhere. But the same energy that makes it so is intoxicating and at its best incredibly inspiring. It's easy to feel invisible there, but the level of "alive" that you can feel at any random moment is as hard to hold onto elsewhere as it is easy to keep an eye on the other stuff.
If any of that makes any sense.
All that to say that every time I see the new trailer, I get a little choked up. It's not so much NYC that I miss I suppose, but that time of my life. And I don't miss it, per say, as much as remember just how much lay ahead. I think seeing those characters come alive on the screen, captured on film, expanded beyond the stage that I saw them on so many times will be an incredible experience. Even if I decide that I don't like the filmmaking, more time with those characters will bring so much to the surface beyond just the story in the show - 42nd Street pre-Disney, my time with Disney, the summer I lived w/ Randy and John, Curt Malloy, 103rd and Riverside, belting Ragtime in La Chanze's key in Garth's penthouse office, the list goes on.
Maybe in 10 years I'll be waxing poetic on the movie opening and all the memories that tie in with the Fall of 2005 and just how much was ahead.
Posted by nikl at 10:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 12, 2005
Random Photos Galore
Random photos from Memorial Day, baseball games, the painting of The Longhorn, and morning golf.
Posted by nikl at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)
June 08, 2005
Weigh in
I'm backdating this like a mo fo.
163.5 AGAIN.
Measurements next week...
Posted by nikl at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)
June 07, 2005
Fainting Goats
Some of us know how I feel about goats. Those who don't, I don't believe in them. They aren't natural. They are on the list with Kicklines, Sheep, and some other stuff I can't recall last night.
Therefore, This just killed me.
Posted by nikl at 01:39 PM | Comments (2)
June 03, 2005
RT Golf Outing
A week later...
Last Thursday was the annual Rodgers Townsend golf outing. We played a 9 holes of best ball in teams of 4, then proceeded to Townsend's house for the world's longest long-shot basketball competition (which ultimately resulted in over $300 in cash getting kicked around the ground for the next 5 hours), good food, karaoke and general madness.
here are my photos from the gold tourney part.
Posted by nikl at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2005
Old School THROW DOWN
There are certain tunes that are just NOT TO BE MESSED WITH.
This morning All Shuffle has reminded me of two:
This Masquerade by George Benson, and
Feels So Good by Chuck Mangione
The bomb, I tell you. The. Bomb. Diggity.
And Christina Aguilera's first album? DO NOT BE FOOLED. It don't play neither.
And as I listen, neither does her latest album. That thing is PRoDUced.
And don't get me started re: Xtina's Xmas... (only 7 months!)
Posted by nikl at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)