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"The only constant in this world is change..."
I forget which great thinker said that (maybe Harpo Marx) but it's true. Change has even come to the Rantmeister this week in the form of a brand spanking new Apple MacBook Pro 17 laptop computer. This s my first blog post from the new computer...sitting wireless on my bed...and, yes, dressed in pajamas. I can practically feel the specter of Steve Jobs guiding my fingers. I began my computing journey with Macs working at the newspapers, had a Mac Performa in the early 90s, then switched to PCs because of the availability of software. With this Core Duo Mac able to run anything made for either machine, the decision to switch back was a no-brainer.
Ain't life grand!
The new Harry Potter movie is on the agenda for today...leisure time is welcome after the last five weeks of performances at the Ashtabula Arts Center (three weeks of The Wizard of Oz and two weeks of The Fantasticks.) The Fantasticks was a ball, though, working with a small cast of very talented people...you were never quite sure what the show was going to be from night to night (there was a lot of improvisation going on.) It was very challenging for me musically, as my last formal musical training was as a chorus member at the arts center in probably 1974, but it could have been a lot worse.
On the home front, the garden is growing somewhat slowly because of the drought, but our four acres of sweet corn looks good as do the peppers and tomatoes. We've also launched a somewhat preemptive pogrom against raccoons (or consider it payback for all the chickens they've killed here) with the current tally standing at 12 confirmed kills and a couple probables.
More incisive blogging to follow as I sort out the ins and out of this new platform.

I'm not dead...here's a dusty update

My apologies for the lack of posts (he says, blowing the dust off his blog,) but rehearsals for this summer’s theater efforts and “plantin’ time” have interfered.

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To update:

*”The Wizard of Oz” is coming around…it opens Friday at the Ashtabula Arts Center and should be pretty good. We had a seven-hour rehearsal yesterday, complete with two hours of jitterbug dancing to start things off. Today I am feeling every one of my 46 years.

*We have 2-3 acres of sweet corn planted, with the early planting up 8-9 inches already. “Knee high by the Fourth of July” should be no problem…heck, it’s already knee high on some of our more height-challenged members of society. We’ve also got 75 tomato plants, 75 peppers, 25 hills of cucumbers and 25-30 hills combined of muskmelons and squash…now if we can just persuade the deer to dine elsewhere…

*Son-and-heir apparently has a girlfriend. I’m not sure how to feel about that. He spent more than an hour talking to her on the phone yesterday…this, the boy who won’t even talk to his parents on the phone. He needs to work on his date planning technique, though…he invited her over to the farm this summer to help make hay.

Yep, he’s a smoothie…just like his Dad (not.)

*We’re gradually reducing the horse herd…one left yesterday, bringing the total down to 10 (and another, Bubba, due to be returned in the coming weeks to the adoption program from which he came.) We’d like to have the tally down to 5-6 by the time fall rolls around this year.

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I’m also planning to write a post on my continuing disdain for the illegal immigration amnesty being pushed by President Bush and that corrupt legion of yammering simians inhabiting the Senate chambers in Washington, D.C. Stay tuned…

A busier summer

I haven’t even started rehearsals yet, and I’ve already been bumped up the cast list for The Fantasticks at the Ashtabula Arts Center’s Straw Hat Theater. I was going to play the part of the Guy who Dies…a funny, smallish role. I found out yesterday I will be playing the part of the father of the boy, a main role in the small cast, meaning I’ve got at least eight songs to learn.

It should be a fun show to do as I know, like and respect the director and all the other actors. Stay tuned.

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Guitar update: It’s going well. Doc-wife has joined me in my quest to be a jukebox hero, and now we play our Fender Stratocasters (mine Ice Blue, hers Midnight Wine) for an hour or more every day. We can give a recognizable chords-only rendition of quite a few songs that use the 15-20 chords we know…we were working on “Freebird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd this morning.

The Freebird video (not us) is here.

Update: Oz, Fantasticks

I went to callbacks today for The Wizard of Oz at the Ashtabula Arts Center so the director could take a look at the potential Dorothies, Auntie Ems and Wicked Witches. My ears are still ringing from the characteristic cackling of the witches and I was happy to see terrific people there auditioning for the parts. It was a riot to hear the witches cut loose for the first time (of course, then I couldn’t hear anything.) Question: Should there be blood flowing from my ears and “ahhh-hahahaha!” reverberating in my head?

Several of the Dorothy candidates are taking part in the “Kids Sing Broadway” production this weekend at AAC…we saw it last night and it was terrific. Such singers…I’ll have to scrape the rust off my own pipes to keep up. The talent bodes well for a good show this summer.

And speaking of summer, I also learned I will be playing the part of Mortimer, The Guy Who Dies in “The Fantasticks”. I’m not really familiar with the part, but from a quick Googling, it looks like it should be fun. I’ll be playing another Indian…this time with a Cockney accent…I KNEW I was going to be typecast after “Cuckoo’s Nest!”

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I’ll write more interesting stuff tomorrow when I have more time…I promise!

Going to Oz this summer

The first audition results are in: the Rantmeister Clan will be traveling to the land of Oz this summer in the Ashtabula Arts Center’s Straw Hat Theater production of “The Wizard of Oz.” I will play the Tin Woodsman, Doc-wife will be the munchkin coroner and the blog-daughter will have an as-yet-unspecified part. I will actually begin work on the show Saturday at a call-back audition as the director tries to see which aspiring Dorothy will work best with the the actors she’s picked as the other principals.

No word yet on The Fantasticks or Moby Dick: The Musical.

Auditions over...now the wait

We had auditions yesterday at the Ashtabula Arts Center for this summer’s Straw Hat Theater season. Son-and-heir opted out, but Doc-wife, the blog-daughter and I were on hand to sing our little hearts out and do a monologue for the assembled directors.

BD picked a compilation of Jayne’s monologues from Joss Whedon’s late “Firefly” television series. She said one of the directors actually looked ill when she got to the part about the crazed Reavers, who “rape (people) to death, eat your flesh and sew your skin to their clothing…and if you’re real, real lucky, they do it in that order.” Of course, another of the directors (The Fantasticks) actually recognized the source of the monologue – major geek bonus points for that!

The shows we are interested in include “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Fantasticks” and “Moby Dick-The Musical.” Straw Hat will also present “Sideshow” this summer, but it sounded a little depressing and I’m not ready for that yet after “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” plus I don’t want to be a role hog. The director of Sideshow sounded hurt that I wasn’t auditioning for that show. When asked for preferences, I told them I’d like to be the Tin Woodsman in the Wizard of Oz and Doc-wife expressed a longing to be the munchkin coroner in the same show.

Doc wife sang “Les Poissons” from “The Little Mermaid,” but in the interest of brevity they cut her off before she could whip out her little plastic lobster prop. I sang “The Bare Necessities” from “The Jungle Book” and the blog-daughter sang “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” from “Easter Parade.” The songs were not rendered in a stellar manner as it was difficult to keep pace with the erratic young accompanist. All in all, though, things could have been much worse.

There were at least 50 people signed up for yesterday’s three-hour cattle call audition, mostly junior high and early high school girls. I assume they had a similar-or-better turnout at Saturday’s auditions. Hopefully, they had a more diverse age group at Saturday’s tryouts.

Casting is expected to be announced within a couple weeks.

Mrs. Cox: My ears and daughter thank you

The blog-daughter has been flitting around the house the last couple days, belting out “The Simple Joys of Maidenhood” from Camelot. It’s her intention to sing the number at auditions Sunday, March 18 for the Ashtabula Arts Center’s summer Straw Hat Theater productions.

This year it has actually been kind of nice to listen to her. Previous year’s audition practice has been kind of hit-and-miss with the blog-daughter: to quote a line from a child's book, “when she was good she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid.” A year in the middle school chorus, though, has made a tremendous difference. Now, she almost always hits the right notes with clarity and good support…when she gets more confidence, she’ll be unstoppable. Her middle school chorus teacher, Mrs. Cox (a newly-minted educator and terrific addition to the schools), has offered to help BD prepare for the auditions by working with her after school during the next week. My daughter is also currently in rehearsals at the AAC for the musical “Pocahontas,” which runs March 30-April 1.

BD is interested in auditioning for “Moby Dick: The Musical,” “Sideshow” and “The Wizard of Oz.” In addition to those shows, the AAC will also produce “The Fantasticks” this summer. Doc-wife and I (perhaps even son-and-heir) will also audition, though we haven’t yet settled on the music we’ll use.

We’ve decided, for the first time since our return to Ohio, to forego auditions this summer at our most-local theater…as I noted here, there is just nothing on their slate of shows that sound appealing this year.