Life as illustrated by the many faces of Zeke

Greetings to all! To the one (or possibly two; depending on which way the sanity check goes) of you who actually care: Sorry about not getting a new post up. I know, horrendous. My last one I had a good excuse for; I was trying to be somewhat formal and post a specific topic. I don’t know what excuse I’ll use for this one. Can I call in sick to blogging?

one more apology to get out of the way before I get started. To all of you who have lame connections (I think that’s just you Anders) I apologize for this post’s perfuse employment of images. I like images- they make things so much easier- but sorry about the whole waiting thing. But you’ll get over it I’m sure.

You see, life often seems like a kaleidoscope- hundreds of different images and events happening just barely far apart enough from each other to appreciate them. This is, after all, why we like art- movies, books, songs- because we like to capture and savor these moments. And it is with that in mind that I present “My life in the past few weeks, as told by a crappy montage of images thrown together painstakingly in mspaint” as a discussion springboard:

The picture of me with the tux in the center is myself as Henry Higgins. The one on the bottom left is probably the only non-frightening off stage picture of me with makeup. These of course, represent the now seemingly small blip of time that was the play production of Pygmalion at my home school co-op. Two small pictures- but behind them so much- I know not even where to start. This play has been (though so much work) SOOO much fun. I think this production has been the one I have enjoyed the most- and I say that feeling slightly guilty, since everyone else I’ve worked with before has been awesome as well. But honestly, everything about this play was great. I got to play British jerk- this is much more accessible, I think, then any of my other big roles (Aslan and Prospero). I could draw from more common, ordinary things and I could take them further. I was really able to slip into the role. The other ones I’ve played were good and I enjoyed them, but this one gave me so much liberty to mess around, because I wasn’t as- insecure?- about who the character was. I rarely second guessed myself as the character while onstage. Not that I was overly confident; it still had its moments of difficulty and anxiousness but… I guess, for whatever reason, I was able to believe myself as the character more so then I ever have in a play. The script has a lot to do with it, but I think that another part is probably the great acting stuff I’ve done with my awesome drama teacher…I’ve taken an acting exercise class this semester from her and a play writing class from her last semester, and I see so (and appreciate) so much more in a production now. And speaking of this production…

It wasn’t just the source material and MY experience that was so wonderful for me, it was EVERYONE involved in the play. I am doing a mental double-check right now to be sure, but- yes, I can accurately say that EVERYONE who was involved in this play made it a better experience. I cannot think of a single person that contributed negatively or did not contribute at all. This all starts of course with the amazing director- Mrs. M. She is right in between the last of my directors extremes- laid back and aggressive. Again, I almost feel bad saying this because I loved both of my directors and think they did a marvelous job- but the fact remains that I am awed by how this director was personable and calm through everything, yet could still exert authority or give criticism. She gave us A LOT of space to come up with our own interpretations and ways of delivering lines, so much so at first that it frustrated me a bit. She only made real changes to my deliveries twice. But those times- wow. It is amazing how these little tweaks can change the emotion onstage.

Paragraph six, and I’m still talking about Pygmalion. Oh dear, this is going to be a long post. But so be it, because this experience was that great. It was a book-post-in-your-blog great. It doesn’t stop at the director: all the behind the scenes people were amazing. I’ve never seen a support staff like this. Makeup, sets, props, clothes- all were handled so well. Behind the scenes people really are the unsung stars of the play- they make or break a production of this scale. And in this case, they made it. But the best part of this production, which spans over every memory I have of it, is by far the people. I have become friends with people I did not know well before, and I have become closer to those on the crew and cast that I did know. I didn’t know the actor that played opposite me as Pickering at all until we started the play and now we joke around with each other all the time. I got to know and laugh with the people who (often against my will) applied my makeup. They are all awesome. I knew most of the people on the set crew, but I got to know and respect them more during the play. I am so pleased with the production, not only because all did such a good job in their part, but because all of them were such awesome people.

This actually, brings me to the top left picture… me, with cake all over my face and silly string a’ plenty draped about my person. You see, I am SO loved that certain people took it upon themselves to prank me. I don’t believe I have really been seriously pranked like I was that night ever before in my life. I got to experience what it felt like to have cake smashed into your face, which was good and ended a life long curiosity I held. I got an excuse to put cake in various girls face, which was even better and satisfied an immaturity that I have had to suppress for a very long time. Then I got dragged outside, mobster style, and was assaulted with silly string. This was all fun and good, but I am still hitting myself for such a wasted opportunity. You see, I got wind of a prank involving silly string, and last minute I was able to get a supplier to give me a partially used can for my self defense. I hid it cleverly in my jacket pocket, and when they pulled the caps off to open fire, I drew mine as well. Unfortunately, in the darkness and confusion of that fateful night, I failed to properly make out which end of the nozzle the silly string would actually spray out of. And as such, what was supposed to be my valiant last stand was totally batched and actually aided the enemy I was trying so hard to regain my dignity from. Overall- it was AWESOME. Thank you everyone who was involved in that prank and in the play. I have some great memories I will tell for years to come.

Now we get to top right and bottom right images. These represent a past time I have become increasingly involved in- paintballing. I have a new friend I met a few months ago who is extremely into paintballing, and has got me active in it after several years of owning a gun but rarely if ever, using it. As you can see by the top right picture, I got pWnd pretty hard. Direct hit to the eye and mouth vent. The bottom shows how I actually got to taste the paint, since the ball exploded through the vent holes. By the way, it wasn’t that good- though it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be though. The paint had a rather strong tang to it that somewhat disagreed with me.

I’ve played paintball I think 2 weeks in a row now- and one of them was a several hour cookout/shootout. That was a lot of fun- even though I was the first to get cut down almost EVERY game. I blame the gun and me being a n00b. But it doesn’t matter; the game is a lot of fun. Hard, painful fun, but fun nonetheless. I have several happy welts all over me now thanks to my little binge of sporting, and I am proud of them.

The other pictures get more and more vauge as I was trying to fill spaces in the montage, but I’ll give them meaning anyway. The in the middle right of me on the computer, represents me on the computer. Its something I do a lot- I think I live a good deal of my life the through the avenue of cyberspace. Its my social hub when not at my co-op or church, its my source of information, of entertainment, and the sole recipient of the meager bit of organizational skills I have. Almost all of my creative outlets pass through the computer at one time or another- either blogging, or writing something for school or listening to music. So I suppose this image does show an important picture in my kaliscope of time.

The others- are me with hair. I suppose this isn’t directly related to the last few weeks, but I am going to tie it in anyway. You see, I have had a fro and it looked cool. I have had wanna-be dreads, and they did not look that cool. I have had a beard for awhile, and in my humble opinion, that looked cool. I now have no beard and I believe I am not alone in thinking that I made a drastic mistake. One that re-growth will solve, but a mistake nonetheless. But wait, you say- why the picture of the fro and not the picture of the beardless man? Because

a) I don’t have any pictures of me with out a beard and

b) That is as it should be and will likely remain so.

And that, my friends, concludes this broadcast. It was a long one, I know. I'd say I'm sorry, but that would imply the notion that I will try to change my habbits and in the future will post small episodes. This will probably happen again, I shoudn't wonder. Sorry bout that. Oh wait... dang it. And finally, since I like to be unconventional, and also to make you all slightly annoyed, I will end this post with a whimper instead of a bang.