Halloween 2011: Troll 3 - Head Shop

 Our Eerie St. Halloween 2011 performance was a huge hit again this year.  This year's theme was Head Shop:  Troll 3:  Here's Richard Young's recap:

"As I packed up yesterday I kept remembering all of the different things that everybody contributed and how much of a team project this is! All the little details matter so much.

Brandon outdid himself on the art work and set the horror comic scene for the whole event. He got the idea, dug thru the source artwork and two days later had completed the piece!

Neil made a special last minute make-up run for the real good stuff and brought extra, very valuable heads that were the final touch on the set. Not to mention the fact that he came to Oakland just for Halloween!

Rodney was called in for make-up duty and skull painting duty at the 11th hour and then got down to his usual wonderful ghastly guide duties! Teacher by day, ghoul by night (I think he was getting revenge...)

Rick and Michael were incredible leading men plus Rick brought killer chicken and Michael set us up with Zachary's pizza on rehearsal night. It just would not be the same without those two working off each other. In fact all the acting was really good this year. Are we becoming a real theater company?!?! (Rick, how did those handcuffs work out...?)

Rosanna took time from her very busy school schedule to come and be our gratuitous "sexy nurse" and give us our horror movie CRED. I was worried we would not get her on stage and then she turns up and steals the show. Violation! Rosanna also brought Daniel, who took great photos and video and generally made us all happy. What a great guy!

Headless Ray with the golden cello was just too cool and Robbin did a great job on the bloody stump costume! Ray was on call and answering medical questions while he was building his set. That's dedication! Ray also came thru with the killer projector so that we could project the art work. (In keeping with all my other tech failures in October, my ancient projector worked on Sunday and died on Monday.)

Trey and his buddies - Jared, Nathan, Nate, and Grace - were beautiful as heads and monsters and they did it under difficult, hot, uncomfortable circumstances. Heads off to the boys and girls of Oakland tech! I'm hoping this is the start of many more productions - at least until they all head off to college. Trey also did killer work decorating the troll. (Unwrapping and packing all the fabric, I found out just how heavy that thing was! His thighs were sore on Tuesday!)
Jared was crazy funny as the helicopter victim. It's easy to underestimate how good an effect will be when you are on stage but when I watched a snippet of video of Jared doing the arms behind his back it was truly crazy looking and very effective! Sometimes the simplest gimmicks are the best!
Margaret even made a debut on stage as one of the heads. (I think she liked it! Perhaps she'll be back for more now that she's had a little taste of Erie street fame!)"

Richard's recap was fantastic!  What a great night!

I'm speaking at Elmhurst Middle School next Thursday and created a bookmark for them.  Should be a fun visit.  I love sixth graders!

Book Nerd

 I'm still learning the various ways to read and synch my readers.  Just downloaded Samuel Johnson's Notes on Shakespeare on ibooks using the pdf attached to my email, then realized I could download a Google app to do the same thing.  I love technology!

Lia Jia Asian Kitchen on Lakeshore Ave & Mandana

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/16/FD9J1LFF52.DTL&ao=all

Last Sunday, Michael Bauer of the Chronicle gave my favorite neighborhood restaurant Lin Jia a glowing review!  I'm so happy for Marcia.  Alice and I stopped by after my racquetball tournament and ordered the dumpling soup, walnut prawns and mongolian beef.  So delicious!  Marcia's restaurant deserves all the praise she's received.  It's delicious food and a comfortable, relaxing place to eat a nice meal.  One of the dishes mentioned in the review is the Lin Jia chicken that needs to be ordered a day in advance.  I need to try this dish sometime.

Alice and I watched all seven episodes of Downton Abbey over the weekend.  Everything about this production is wonderful.  The pacing, the lines, the acting are all superb.  I've added this series to my TV influences tab.  I'd like my series to hook the reader as well as this series hooked me.  I loved every moment of it and can't wait to watch season 2.

Had a wonderful birthday yesterday.  Took the day off and spent all day with Alice.  We went to Arizmendi for my sweet Sallie, Peet's for Golden Dragon Oolong tea, Chinatown in Oakland for dim sum, afterwhich Alice bought me a hot water container just like hers for tea.  We then went to AMC and saw "Moneyball," which had been on my list the past few weeks.

I enjoyed this lowkey film very much.  In many ways it reminded me of All the President's Men.  The emotional range was fairly neutral, except perhaps for the tossing of a gatoraid container.  Alice and I enjoyed it.  After the film, we picked up Austin in San Francisco and went to Barney's for dinner.  Then we went home and watched Gosford Park on Netflix.  A very relaxing, enjoyable birthday indeed!

Quick Weekend

For a lowkey weekend, Alice and I ended up doing quite a bit.  I played in a morning doubles tournament Saturday at San Ramon and ate too many slices of pizza afterward.  That evening, the morning racquetball crew got together with our better halves at Steve B.'s and tore it up all evening long with some truly wonderful conversation and delicious food at Dona Tomas.  What a great group of guys.  Steve has an actual Defender machine in his garage circa 1980.  The sound effects alone make me want one.  He also has a foosball table, so we played two games before calling it a night.

Now onto the week ahead and revisions to our Deja Bride script Chris and I wrote before Julia Milan.  After that, we'll finish up the Julia Milan adaptation, then revisit Retro Therapy.  Lots to keep me busy while waiting for first round submissions.

On Jeni Craswell's Facebook wall, this hit my funny bone: