R.I.P. Mr. Wizard

When I saw this today I got choked up in much the same way that I did when Fred Rogers died. These men weren't just television personalities to me - they were surrogate fathers. Mr. Wizard helped raise me and I owe much of my love for science experiments to him. I have immensely strong memories of sitting on the floor in my living room as Mr. Wizard taught me and the usual multi-ethnic nerd "assistant" the principals of resonance, polarization, inertia or PH. With the added perspective of age, I can see that much of the foundation of my understanding about science I learned from Mr. Herbert.

Once, when playing the question game, someone asked "If you could give a hug to any person right now, who would it be?" Guess who my answer was. I always thought Mr. Wizard looked a little sad that he had to always remain so scientific with the kids on his show... as if perhaps,if one of the kids were to just wrap their arms around him and say;
"I love you Mr. Wizard!"
A quite smile bravely stands guard in front of the man's loneliness.
"Thank you little man... but I can not love you back, for I am a wizard and, as such, we wizards are married to science."
"But, why can't you just..."
"Shhh... go forth young egghead; fall in love with the world and it's mysteries, for they are the most beautiful thing you will ever see."
As the man returns to his red balloon filled with hydrogen tied to a tennis ball, he turns away to hide his betraying eyes. The boy walks away, gets beaten up after Chess Club and goes to Space Camp.

Thank you Mr. Wizard - you made me love questions.

Cutegasm

Good Lord, it's lovely out. Summers here humans, go forth and wear tank-tops.



My dog uterus aches from watching this. I'm totally serious when I say that if anyone needs a dog-sitter - I'm your soldier for love.

Swim Home

Ok, so you think mimes are creepy and/or sad. Frankly, having never seen one I would have been apt to agree with you - but that would make me just as racist as you are Skippy.

Enter the Sunday. Jodi dragged me to see a quite feller named Mikael Rudolph. Whoa nelly - I heart mime! This was one of the more solidly entertaining bits of performing I've seen as of late. The show was framed around him pulling stuff from his suitcase - in other words - there wasn't really much structure. Nonetheless, it didn't really need much. Almost everyone one of his object based 'bits' connected on many levels while bing pretty damn impressive. His one attempted at being poignant, a dancing with a woman's dress to demonstrate his loneliness, did fall flat - but I commend him for scratching the profound.

So, I guess I'm a convert now. Damnit - next I'm prolly going to start liking movement based mesa-storytelling... sorry Sarah.

So

"Communicating as performance art"

So one of the only articles I've ever seen in a major TC paper about Speech and it gets described as "performance art." Sigh. Anywho, it's a decent article.

The State tournament yesterday was one of those truly wonderful days that define the power of being on a team. Eagan broke the record for the number of medals won (20 - previous record was 17). Woot for us - that's gonna stick for a long time.

Jay and John took home the blue; rocking all sorts of awesomeness. Jay in particular delivered a creative that reminded me how powerful this silly activity can be.

Walker wrote his own speech, one of the requirements for the creative expression category. It was titled "Blacked into a Corner." His thesis, he said, is that African-Americans often limit the freedoms they've fought for by stereotyping themselves, and by forcing definitions upon each other about what it means to be black.

And, yes, he used the N-word, in what many said was a provocative performance. He took the part of a black man who was trying to be black enough and a fairy godfather who was trying to help him.

Good day... good day.

Auditions for Gooogle: The Musical (2.0)

Winning the award for most unlikely show ever to be produced at the Guthrie - the 2006 Fringe hit Gooogle: The Musical is back for a full run the entire month of February – including 3 shows at the Guthrie. Rehearsals begin middle December and last through January.

Gooogle: The Musical asks the centuries old question: “would the world be better off without the internet?” Set in the slightly-more-than-not-to-distant future; the story follows the last Librarian in the world. When Google disappears all hell breaks loose, the unwashed masses addicted to the internet (a.k.a.: us) become zombies and people start singing… ooohh, scary. The show has been reworked from the ground up for this run.

9 ROLES BEING CAST!
4 Women, 5 Men: all ages, types – mostly looking for strong singers. Ethnic diversity strongly encouraged. A couple of the harder to fill roles include;

Jessica – 40+: Older woman, maternal figure, dark side. Strong singer wanted.

Rajit – Indian male – any age, tech support, strong comic timing.

Auditions Thursday 12/7 and Saturday 12/9. Prepare 1 comic monologue and 1 minute of any song that shows off your pipes. Please send a resume & headshot to drewhammond@imdo.org to schedule an audition time.

All positions paid.