"Well, gotta go, kid . . . keep doin' that spoon thing."

The above quote is from Legendary Frog's "The Matrix Has You," a parody of, you guessed it, The Matrix. I saw it this week and thought it was hilarious . . . I showed it to AJ and he seemed to think it only mildly amusing. *sigh* He has no appreciation for lower humer . . . :P

This will probably be a pretty short update, for two reasons: 1) I don't really remember what happened since I last posted, and it wasn't a whole lot anyway, and 2) I want Rae to read it :P

Okay, so Wednesday . . . hmm what happened on Wednesday? I don't really remember . . . well, I posted Renovation, and did the renovations, and announced the departure of Google News from my site . . . after like 2 months or so, it finally took its leave.

I almost posted "it's" right there!! :O . . . Never confuse "its" and "it's." Its very bad.

Har har, you all say. Deal with it. I thought it was funny.

Anyways, back to Wednesday. UMMMMMMM . . . . gah this is frustrating. Well let's see I know there was a rehearsal . . . gimmie a sec, I'll go see which one it was.

*hold music plays*

Your call is important to us. Thank you for visiting the Death Star. If it's the Emperor's will, we kill. Okay yes we know that was stupid. But every big place or organization has a motto. If you would like to participate in the Death Star Motto Contest, please contact Lord Harbison at ------------@-------.net. If you didn't get that, ask Lord Harbison himself, or his brother, or someone else. Because quite frankly, this is a public place, and Lord Harbison is afraid of getting bad email, because he may be a Dark Lord of the Sith, but he's a safe Dark Lord of the Sith.

*sound of a phone picking up*

Thank you for holding, this is me again. I just realized that I probably didn't write about Tuesday night's rehearsal, either, but I shall check. One moment.

*hold music plays*

Your call is important to us. Thank for visiting the Death St—

*sound of a phone picking up*

Okay sorry. I discovered that I didn't write about Tuesday night's rehearsal, so that comes first. I'm not sure if I mentioned it (but don't worry, I won't find out, I'm pretty sure I didn't), but I had a sore throat on Tuesday and was afraid of becoming sick, which would not have been good because I had Oliver and Vacation. And, as if that wasn't bad enough, Tuesday night was a vocal rehearsal, so I had to sing through that sore throat. Oh me, oh me, woe, woe!!

And curiously enough, it hurt when I sang, but not when I talked. Seriously. I had no problem at all talking, but singing was a killer. UGH. Why Tuesday of all days?? *sigh* . . . anyway, I survived, and it turns out we actually have a pretty cool harmony for the finale . . . and of course, I'm singing it. I seriously can't remember a time when they did harmony on a song and I sang the melody. Like I said, it's pretty cool, but I'd really rather just listen to it and sing the melody myself . . . ah well. Too late now.

So anyway, I survived, then I went backstage to try to find Melody and ask her to teach me what Larry taught the Saturday I wasn't there (when the debate was). But she was teaching Josh L., so I thought "well, I guess I'll just watch her teaching him and see how it goes." Then Taylor turns up, and starts doing random stuff to me (hitting me, verbally abusing me, that kind of thing). So I said, "Just so you know, I don't know this song, so I'd appreciate it if—" and she cut me off. Apparently, she thought I was going to say "if you'd teach it to me," when actually I was going to say "if you'd leave me alone." But in the end it worked out well, because I got someone to teach it with me and didn't have to learn it from a distance.

In any case, the song was It's Never Too Late to Start Over Again, which is a fun but Lifehousey song. The choreography is good though. Larry is awesome. He's actually a lot like Dustin in his choreography (notice the wonderful Hs), except slightly less intense. Anyway, Taylor took the next hour or so to teach me the dance, and I actually remember it (I think), which is good, since I have a solo and I'd look stupid if I was dancing and had no idea what to do and everyone's watching me in particular . . . well, okay, I should clarify. I don't have a dance solo, I have a singing solo, and it's one line. But because of that, I'm in the back on some very high stairs that put my feet on level with everyone else's heads (probably a little higher, actually), so I'm kind of prominent. Mercifully I don't have to go there until I sing my solo, but then I'm there for the rest of the song . . . I actually get to be there twice, but the second time will be covered in Thursday's coverage.

So anyways that was Tuesday's rehearsal.

On Wednesday, I don't really remember a whole lot of what happened, which makes me think I was just messing around all day. Actually, come to think of it, I think . . . THAT happened on Wednesday . . . let me check.

*hold music plays*

You—

*sound of phone being picked up*

Actually, it happened on Friday, so we'll get to it then.

So since nothing really happened on Wednesday, I'll go straight to rehearsal. It was a choreography rehearsal, which was just fabulous because my apparent sickness had progressed from a sore throat to a runny nose, so it didn't hurt to sing but it sounded awful and I had to pause every few minutes and whip out my handkerchief. Anyway, we choreographed the opening scene, where I'm a vendor selling Fruit and Vegetables to the poor of suburbian London. I have a very awesome solo in that song: "Buy my vegetables!!!" There's a lot of moving around . . . Larry is a genius. He came up with the most awesome way to create a street scene that I've ever seen in my life. He put tape down in what was basically a square, but that had some jutting out parts and some indented parts, and he told the poor to walk on it. Now, that might sound like a stupid idea, but under Lifehouse's constraints, it really makes it look like a busy street with people walking all around. It's actually more apparent in a different scene, which I'll get to in a minute.

Anyway, we did the song (I also get to go up on the stairs in that, I forgot . . . I get to walk down them and sing my great solo). Then we moved on to the next big crowd scene, which is the scene where Oliver meets Jack Dawkins, aka the Artful Dodger, aka my friend Nick. Basically, it's the same as the openin, minus the poor. Because the vendors are now selling to rich Londoners. This one guy (Name: Doug) is so funny . . . he decided that he was rich, so he went and hunted up a cane randomly, and then held his head in such a way that you could almost picture the top hat, and he had the perfect snob face. It was great.

So we did that number, and that's where the street idea really becomes very cool. Because for this, since there's a lot of talking going on between Dodger and Oliver, there's a long period of time between the songs where the chorus (aka the vendors and Londoners) do nothing. Normally, we would just be given freedom to wander the stage as we pleased, attempting to give the appearance of a busy town. But that wasn't good enough for Larry. No. He wanted something that actually looked like a busy town.

So he laid down the tape again, this time in two patterns. One went clockwise, the other counter-clockwise. And so we walk along in our little paterns, trying to sell to everyone who goes by (or looking to buy if you're not a vendor). It's really pretty cool . . . because there's constant motion and there's never a large whole at one spot on the stage, which we've had problems with in previous shows. Although in writing it probably sounds like a stupid idea, it was really the work of a genius.

So that was pretty much Wednesday. Again, not a whole lot happened on Thursday, so I'll skip right to rehearsal (Oliver is basically the only thing happening in my life right now worth writing about). Thursday we quickly went through all the choreography we'd learned, and then we ran Act 2. Since I'm in a whopping big two scenes in Act 2, I pretty much just hung out with Spaghetti (and Nick and Jeremy and Megan when they were offstage). We talked about Star Wars (and how every movie's not the same :P). Nick had been sitting in a big swivel chair earlier, with a scepter in his hand and a crown and royal robe and stuff (it's amazing the stuff that's just laying around at Lifehouse). So me and Spaghetti decided that he could be the Emperor . . . all we had to do was shave his head and wrinkle his face all up. Then we decided that Melody should be Mara Jade, she'd just have to dye her hair a little more reddish and get a purple lightsaber. Basically we were just going through everyone and trying to build the Empire, which was a lot of fun and killed quite a bit of time.

Then, suddenly, it happened.

Then we went back to talking about Star Wars for a while, then it was time for my scene. Well, my first scene, anyway. In this scene, Dodger and Bet (Dodger's girlfriend and fellow thief) are walking home at night singing about their life, and I'm a grumpy man in a window. I get mad at them. I throw shoes at them. It's fun. Except . . . well, the third time I threw a shoe (the second time we were running the scene), Nick dodged it, and it bounced off of the wall and right into Steve (the director). So that kind of scared me for a minute, but Steve is awesome so he just thought it was funny. Which, in retrospect, it was.

Also, my wife was chosen . . . Steve selected Jazzi (who also is my wife earlier, she's Mrs. Sowerberry). So I was happy because it wasn't Taylor. I was happy. Taylor literally cheered. But in the end, they didn't do that scene anyway because Mr. Brownlow wasn't there. So we'll get to that next week, probably a night when I'm on vacation and not there. *sigh* Darn life . . . always getting in the way. That's why I try to minimize the life I have. Ask AJ. I do a good job.

Then. Friday. A pretty regular day, until a special thing happened. You'll recall the game Tales of Symphonia, which I got a while ago and love very much. And Friday . . . som-something terrible happened . . . my favorite character . . . BETRAYED ME!!!!! TURNED EVIL!!!! TRIED TO KILL ME!!!!! IT'S NOT FAIR!!!!!!! *sob sob sob weep weep weep*

Now, probably you're all thinking that I'm way too into this game . . . But really, it seriously made me depressed for the rest of the night . . . but I'm not as bad as Sarah, she was depressed for the whole next day. She went to see Episode III. She said the whole time, what was going through her mind was "Anakin is turning evil. But that's to be expected, because *bleep* betrayed me." I'm censoring who the character is because of the off chance that one of you will one day play the game, I don't want to ruin a MAJOR surprise. It's like when you're reading a mystery, and you just KNOW that the culprit is Steve, there's just no question, all the evidence points to it. Then the policeman says "Bob, you're under arrest." And you're like WHAT??? BOB??? BOB WAS GOOD!!!! But it was Bob that done it, and Steve turns out to be perfectly innocent. That's what this was. Major surprise.

Anyway, Friday night we also had a rehearsal, but there's really not much to tell. We ran Act 1, so I just got to do the crowd scenes and the Sowerberry scene (no shoe-throwing :'(). Which is fun, but not as much fun as throwing stuff . . . I guess it was Friday, though, that I did something very stupid. Megan can correct me if it was another night, but I think it was Friday. I stupidly accepted a pepper from Doug on his word that it wasn't very spicy . . . you'd think I'd have guessed that it was based on it being called a "death pepper," but no, I was stupid. I had to take it. And not just eat it. But shove the whole thing into my mouth at once. It took a while to kick in, so I was thinking "Hmm, this is pretty good, this tastes good and isn't too spicy, I wonder if AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!! WATER WATER WATER!!!!" So then I ran into the make-up hall and thanked the Lord that there was water in the cooler. Which I drank very much. Because it felt like my throat was on fire. I seriously drank so much I almost threw up because the spiciness just wouldn't go away. But finally it did, and at that point I realized "Hey . . . my nose is actually clear!"

Alas, though, even with the help of a death pepper, that only lasted for about an hour or so. It was pretty nice, though. I thouroughly enjoyed it, and I thanked Doug. He thought I had something smeared on my hand, he couldn't believe I was actually thanking him for giving me that. But I was. So then I was hanging out with Doug and Jake B. for the rest of the night, unless we were onstage.

Saturday pretty much nothing happened other than my messing around, although I did talk to Megan and she said she was making a "which Disney princess are you?" quiz, and that she wanted me to take it when it's done . . . so I'm still waiting to find out which princess I am. I can't stand the suspense much longer, I hope she finishes soon.

Then today we went to church, which was good. We talked about Jesus' funeral and the discovery of his ressurection (sp?). And we talked about pig farming, because Josh is going up to Canada and he's going to work at a pig farm for a few weeks. Then we came home and were just hangin' for a while, and AJ told me to update, and here I am a few hours later updating.

And now, to comments:

Comments on "Yet Another Post":
AJ: You remember my thoughts . . . about onion rings and "take your time." And we discuss bugs at dance because we're weird.

Megan: Ewoks ARE cool!!! Just because you're a crazy stupid ol' Star Wars hater doesn't mean you're right . . . in fact, it means that chances are you're wrong. And for your information, the beauty of the Faun victory dance is that I do it alone. Because there is no other faun. And the BVD is awesome, I must admit.

Comments on "Renovation":
Cormack: lol . . . it basically means "Is that spelled right?" I think it stands for "spelling?" So there you go. Now you know. I have imparted some of my great knowledge to you. Be thankful, worm!!! (sorry . . . couldn't help it)

AJ: Well, as I said, you've got one more, then you have to hit "command-D" and save it for yourself. And if you try to access another site from here . . . *glares*

Rae: lol . . . actually, if you did read it, you'll notice I said not to count it . . . but oh well. You've got two dongs, so I guess you're alright ;)

AJ2: Cool. Yay for me!!!