So I've been involved with Community Theater in the Fairfield County area for about 6 and a half years now. It started with getting involved with The Darien Players in 2001 for The Unexpected Guest by Agatha Christie and its been a downhill ride ever since...sort of...
I apparently did well enough with that show, the Players not only asked me to direct again the following season (I picked Night Watch by Lucille Fletcher) they also added me to their Board of Directors. Didn't ask for it, but was honored at the time. If I knew then what I know now I would have run screaming into the night (well...not really as I did first meet my wife during the auditions for Night Watch).
My third season I wound up directing two shows for the Players. I stepped in on The Heiress after the director got sick and also did The Curious Savage (my choice of material). I had a co-director on both since the former was going into performances as the latter was auditioning and rehearsing. I was also acting in The Curious Savage.
The following season I finally figured how to make Noises Off work in a space that is really to small for such a large show. But we made it work really well in a scaled down/stripped down version. It was a lot of fun. (I also had a small role and ran lights for Ah, Wilderness earlier this season and stage managed Follies prior to that).
The 2004-2005 Season was The Darien Players 25th Anniversary and I helped with getting an Anniversary show off the ground. I wrote a rather funny Agatha Christie parody (since the Players seem to have done more of her shows than anyone else's...in a 10 year period they did of her plays...all but one directed by the same person...who wasn't me as I've only done The Unexpected Guest there). That season, my show was Lanford Wilson's Book of Days a show I'm very proud of. It got the Players "off the stage" and starting to rethink not only how to stage shows in a very flexible black box space, but also what type of shows to do. This was a good season for change as we got some new directing blood into the group.
The 2005-2006 Season I directed Sly Fox in addition to helping out in various ways on other shows. This was a tough show to direct as I had at least one cast member who didn't trust in my vision for the show and acted like a spoiled diva throughout rehearsals. By the time I finally stepped in and put my foot down, the damage had been done. It was not a bad show by any means, but it could have been better if I didn't have to deal with childish distractions from various camps. I decided I needed to take a year off from directing.
The 2006-2007 Season found me involved in co-producing every show across the season (except one...but I was still involved enough to be annoyed by the antics of a visionless and unorganized director who always casts his wife in his shows...which wouldn't be a problem if they didn't collectively suck the life from everything they touch). I did more work during this season than I did when I was only directing. The Darien Players had a good successful season (with the one exception being the afore mentioned show). We brought in more new directors to help re-energize the group and it all worked well. We finished the season with a wonderfully successful production of A Raisin in the Sun...in Darien...in 2007...and we still got some comments about why we did the show...amazing how close minded some can be.
Anyway...the 2007-2008 Season is just about to start and I'm making my directing debut at Curtain Call in Stamford. Its nice to only be driving 8 minutes to get home at night instead of the 20 or so to Darien. I'm directing Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap which will also mark my third Christie show (as I also directed Spider's Web in Westport back in 2004...so I guess any time I work at a theater for the first time, I'll be doing a Christie piece).
I love Dame Agatha's work. There's a lot of fun that can be had if one understands the material and knows how to work it properly. Not to blow my own horn, but I think I know how to handle her stuff very well. I've watched three of her pieces get butchered in Darien and two of them were not pretty sights (Witness for the Prosecution was mind numbing...some great acting, but that had nothing to do with the director...he just lucked out with a few of the actors...but for a courtroom drama whose pacing depends on the judge and the two attorneys to keep it moving you don't cast people who can't remember lines...even when the lines are written on their legal pads).
I've got a great cast for The Mousetrap. All except one of the eight actors is completely new to me. And I think its going to be a lot of fun. It runs from September 14 until September 30 on Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm. There is also a Thursday night performance on September 27 at 8pm. It is being performed in Curtain Call's Dressing Room Theater which is a black box theater where you can bring your own food for a cabaret style experience (yes...hearing that brings up visions of Kevin Kline in Soapdish, but its actually rather informal and not that bad...I've seen a few shows this way). The doors open at 7pm and you sit at your table and eat & drink & be merry until the show starts at 8pm.
We're performing this one "in the round" to give it a bit of a spin for anyone who's already seen the longest running show in theater history. It should be loads of fun. If you're in the area, please come see it. Check out Curtain Call's website for ticket info.
At the same time The Mousetrap opens, my wife is rehearsing a show at Norwalk's Carriage House Arts Center. Sordid Lives opens October 12. Its gonna be a funny show with a great cast under the direction of Frank Gaffney (who also cast our regular babysitter in the show, so we've had to work out a very specific schedule to keep everything on track). Check out the Carriage House website for more info.
While all of this is going on, The Darien Players will have started rehearsals for the first show of the season which is The Elephant Man. I'm co-producing this one. It opens November 2.
After that show closes, we're starting a new series (well...putting a new spin on an old series) called The Darien Players Unplugged. We're trying to get more consistent with our staged readings, so we're doing one on the Sunday after each show closes for a series of 5 across the season. We hope to have a nice mix of new short pieces and excerpts from longer works. I'm "directing" the first session that plays on November 18 (since The Elephant Man closes on November 17).
Lastly, I'm directing Julius Caesar for the Players in March 2008. Its going to be done modern dress and should be both fun and interesting...but I'll discuss that more as we get closer (in between Elephant Man and Caesar The Darien Players are doing Six Degress of Separation). And then I'm most likely going to take a real break from doing shows...a long break from doing shows...
Its been fun, but honestly being on the Players' Board and as their Vice President for the last 4 years has been taxing. There are one too many people on the Board who can't see the future beyond looking down their own arms and I've grown tired of dealing with them. They suck the fun and life out of the most simple tasks (we have a staged reading session going on tonight that has been a pain in the ass and I'm not even involved in it).
I've grown tired of dealing with people who are supposedly part of a larger group but only concern themselves with their working within the group (not for it). I've grown tired of dealing with people who do nothing but complain about how the others who do work very hard all season long. And I've grown tired of people who question how things are done when we've worked hard to put a machine in motion for every show that works very successfully.
Sure, I may change my mind between now and Caesar, but I've thrown the gauntlet down and told the Board (without pinning my frustrations on any one person) that unless things change before that show opens, I will be resigning. Its not an idol threat (as my wife has heard this statement so many times before). I'm tired and I'm done. When something stops being fun, it is time to move on.
Directing The Mousetrap has brought the fun back. Caesar will hopefully sustain it. But I can't continue in the capacity that I have been...that has not been fun.
Be seeing you.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Batman Returns
So, the animal control guy returned (finally) to check things out. We haven't seen our friend in a few days now...so we're assuming he's gone (either flew out the open window or dead somewhere inside the house...still waiting for Malcolm to find it and pick it up).
ACG (animal control guy) checks both fireplaces (which involved having to move lots of toy bins). They're locked up tight.
He checks the attic. No sign of bats.
So maybe this was a one time fluke thing.
He starts looking on the outside of the house. Apparently these little fuckers can get in between siding, shingles, etc. So ACG shines a flashlight all the way up the side of the house into a space at the very corner at the roof line (you have to be standing right up against the house to see it). He points out three dark spots. To me they look like knots in plywood...until he gets his binoculars and we look "closer" and one of those knots has moved about three feet away.
We got bats in our belfry ;-)
There are a few other spots outside the house that also show signs of bats. ACG guestimates we have 10 to 15. Natasha hears this and I can tell I'm going to be late for rehearsal because she's already freaking out (she'd rather we had rattle snakes...she can handle any animal but bats).
ACG then tells us that 10 to 15 isn't a problem. He just went to a house where bats had gotten under the siding and you could hear them in daytime. He said it was like that wall of the house was alive. He figures there were about a thousand or so when they were done cleaning the bats out (which sounds like it should involve a giant vacuum, but is actually much more humane).
So it looks like we're shelling out money to get rid of our dozen or so guests (this is in addition to new tires on the Quest...which we just discovered we were sold a bill of goods on with "run flat tires"...I'll get into that some other time)...this way maybe people will get back to sleep around here. But I kind of doubt it.
Next time...a theater update...haven't done one in a while and there's a LOT going on.
Be seeing you.
ACG (animal control guy) checks both fireplaces (which involved having to move lots of toy bins). They're locked up tight.
He checks the attic. No sign of bats.
So maybe this was a one time fluke thing.
He starts looking on the outside of the house. Apparently these little fuckers can get in between siding, shingles, etc. So ACG shines a flashlight all the way up the side of the house into a space at the very corner at the roof line (you have to be standing right up against the house to see it). He points out three dark spots. To me they look like knots in plywood...until he gets his binoculars and we look "closer" and one of those knots has moved about three feet away.
We got bats in our belfry ;-)
There are a few other spots outside the house that also show signs of bats. ACG guestimates we have 10 to 15. Natasha hears this and I can tell I'm going to be late for rehearsal because she's already freaking out (she'd rather we had rattle snakes...she can handle any animal but bats).
ACG then tells us that 10 to 15 isn't a problem. He just went to a house where bats had gotten under the siding and you could hear them in daytime. He said it was like that wall of the house was alive. He figures there were about a thousand or so when they were done cleaning the bats out (which sounds like it should involve a giant vacuum, but is actually much more humane).
So it looks like we're shelling out money to get rid of our dozen or so guests (this is in addition to new tires on the Quest...which we just discovered we were sold a bill of goods on with "run flat tires"...I'll get into that some other time)...this way maybe people will get back to sleep around here. But I kind of doubt it.
Next time...a theater update...haven't done one in a while and there's a LOT going on.
Be seeing you.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Klytus I'm Bored....
Originally I was going to wait three episodes before reviewing SciFi's new series Flash Gordon, but I figured what's the point.
I've been a big fan of Flash Gordon since I was a kid and PBS would show the old Buster Crabbe serials on weekends. I'd watch them with my dad and while there was an innocent cheesiness to them, they were a lot of fun to watch.
The 1980 camp classic was the first film I saw in theaters after my dad died. Some family friends took my brother and I to distract us from real world events. I wound up seeing it 4 times in the theaters. It was also one of the first films we owned on VHS when we got a VCR. And I've traded up to new formats with it every time its been re-released. It even recently got a new DVD release as a "Saviour of the Universe" Edition which is pretty lackluster if you ask me (so lackluster that I decided to break down and buy the Region 2 version as well...I can at least play that on a computer and listen to the commentary that we didn't get in the new edition). The "extras" on this new DVD consist of an interview with the screenwriter, an interview with comic books artist Alex Ross on why he loves the film, a promo for the new SciFi series and the first chapter of the 1936 serial. Yawn. Luckily, the movie remains A LOT of fun in its cheesy over the top spectacle.
Around the same time, NBC aired a new Saturday morning cartoon that was relatively faithful to Alex Raymond's original Sunday comics. Both seasons of the show are available in a 4 DVD set, but be warned that while the first 16 episodes are great and very faithful, the second season became typical Saturday morning fare (and yet still maintained that Raymond feel surprisingly).
A 1996 cartoon is pretty much ignored these days as it re-envisioned Flash as a skater boy and Ming as a Lizard. Not terrible, but not great either.
Which brings us to the new SciFi series. You know you're in trouble when the preview for the next episode is more exciting than the episode you just watched...and that's only because they're using the Queen theme from the 1980 movie (well...a cover version of it). It's still a great song to get you in that Flash Gordon mood. Too bad the series, after two episodes, doesn't live up to it.
This is not to say that all is horrible. Eric Johnson actually makes a pretty good Flash. I just wish he had better material to work with. Jody Racicot's Zarkov is a bit different from how the character is normally portrayed, but it works for this version. Anna Van Hooft's Princess Aura doesn't quite hold a candle to Ornella Muti's version from 1980, but she holds her own nicely. And Karen Cliche as Baylin, a new character created for this series, is actually somewhat interesting. Ming's right hand man, Rankol, is also an interesting addition to the series (and not just because he hovers when he moves).
Its the rest of the show that is a misfire from start to finish. Gone are any real "aliens" and "monsters". There are no rocket ships only a "rift" that opens to Mongo. Ming is horribly played by John Ralston and the writers don't help him at all. For a guy whose name is Ming the Merciless it took almost all of two episodes for him to even remotely do something to live up to the title. He's more like Ming the Mundane ruling over a planet that pretty much feels like Mongo 90210 than anything else. We haven't seen any of the other major characters from Raymond's universe show up yet, but if we're to believe interviews with the shows producers, we should pray they never do. We're gonna get Hawkmen who have no wings and don't fly? That's not Flash Gordon that's cheap SciFi programming.
And that is what this show reeks of. It seems like someone took a look at all the recent relaunches that have worked well (Bond, Batman, Superman) and decided to give this a shot...but then gave it no budget and the worst writers. Its really sad and someone should put it out of my misery...because I'm such a fan of the characters and situations I may keep watching just to see if it gets any better. And I really don't want to do that.
Until next time.
Be seeing you.
I've been a big fan of Flash Gordon since I was a kid and PBS would show the old Buster Crabbe serials on weekends. I'd watch them with my dad and while there was an innocent cheesiness to them, they were a lot of fun to watch.
The 1980 camp classic was the first film I saw in theaters after my dad died. Some family friends took my brother and I to distract us from real world events. I wound up seeing it 4 times in the theaters. It was also one of the first films we owned on VHS when we got a VCR. And I've traded up to new formats with it every time its been re-released. It even recently got a new DVD release as a "Saviour of the Universe" Edition which is pretty lackluster if you ask me (so lackluster that I decided to break down and buy the Region 2 version as well...I can at least play that on a computer and listen to the commentary that we didn't get in the new edition). The "extras" on this new DVD consist of an interview with the screenwriter, an interview with comic books artist Alex Ross on why he loves the film, a promo for the new SciFi series and the first chapter of the 1936 serial. Yawn. Luckily, the movie remains A LOT of fun in its cheesy over the top spectacle.
Around the same time, NBC aired a new Saturday morning cartoon that was relatively faithful to Alex Raymond's original Sunday comics. Both seasons of the show are available in a 4 DVD set, but be warned that while the first 16 episodes are great and very faithful, the second season became typical Saturday morning fare (and yet still maintained that Raymond feel surprisingly).
A 1996 cartoon is pretty much ignored these days as it re-envisioned Flash as a skater boy and Ming as a Lizard. Not terrible, but not great either.
Which brings us to the new SciFi series. You know you're in trouble when the preview for the next episode is more exciting than the episode you just watched...and that's only because they're using the Queen theme from the 1980 movie (well...a cover version of it). It's still a great song to get you in that Flash Gordon mood. Too bad the series, after two episodes, doesn't live up to it.
This is not to say that all is horrible. Eric Johnson actually makes a pretty good Flash. I just wish he had better material to work with. Jody Racicot's Zarkov is a bit different from how the character is normally portrayed, but it works for this version. Anna Van Hooft's Princess Aura doesn't quite hold a candle to Ornella Muti's version from 1980, but she holds her own nicely. And Karen Cliche as Baylin, a new character created for this series, is actually somewhat interesting. Ming's right hand man, Rankol, is also an interesting addition to the series (and not just because he hovers when he moves).
Its the rest of the show that is a misfire from start to finish. Gone are any real "aliens" and "monsters". There are no rocket ships only a "rift" that opens to Mongo. Ming is horribly played by John Ralston and the writers don't help him at all. For a guy whose name is Ming the Merciless it took almost all of two episodes for him to even remotely do something to live up to the title. He's more like Ming the Mundane ruling over a planet that pretty much feels like Mongo 90210 than anything else. We haven't seen any of the other major characters from Raymond's universe show up yet, but if we're to believe interviews with the shows producers, we should pray they never do. We're gonna get Hawkmen who have no wings and don't fly? That's not Flash Gordon that's cheap SciFi programming.
And that is what this show reeks of. It seems like someone took a look at all the recent relaunches that have worked well (Bond, Batman, Superman) and decided to give this a shot...but then gave it no budget and the worst writers. Its really sad and someone should put it out of my misery...because I'm such a fan of the characters and situations I may keep watching just to see if it gets any better. And I really don't want to do that.
Until next time.
Be seeing you.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
The Gift That Keeps On Giving
So, Sunday August 12 was my wife's 32nd birthday and Tuesday August 14 was my 38th.
In honor of our birthdays we decided to get rabies vaccinations on August 17th.
What brought us to this decision? Funny you should ask? (though you probably didn't, you're gonna hear it anyway).
August 15th was a long day. Natasha was at a workshop from about 8am until 3pm and then we had to go into NYC for my grandfather's 94th birthday dinner. We got back from NYC around 9pm, dropped my parents at their house, took Malcolm home put him in bed and retired for the evening. Tash was exhausted and promptly fell asleep. I always take a while to unwind, but by 11:30 I was in bed.
At 5am I'm aroused by a sound. It's still dark outside. So I look at the clock and register the time. I listen and hear this fluttering sound. Upon looking up I see this small dark object circling over our heads. I promptly start turning on every light I can reach to confirm that we have a bat in our bedroom.
Tash, groggily wakes, registers my concerns and hides under the covers.
I go screaming like a girl across the room, ducking as low as I can, turning on even more lights. I quickly dart out of our room into the laundry room and yank the screen, open the window and turn on the lights. Of course, now every insect in America is starting to come in, but maybe the bat will leave. Luckily, Malcolm's door is closed and he's asleep.
The bat never leaves our room and eventually flies into our bathroom. I quickly shut the pocket door that separates our bathroom from our bedroom and then close up the laundry room. At least the bat is "trapped" and we can call animal control in the morning.
No one sleeps the rest of the "night". Well...that means mostly me as I'm on line researching what to do if there's a bat in the house.
Frightening stories go past my eyes as I read of what to do and what not to do. I don't think the bat bit either of us, but apparently there's a chance you may not know. Thankfully, Malcolm was nowhere near the bat. We call a place that handles bats at a "reasonable" hour (8am) and the guy says he or his partner will come between 11am and 1pm and his rates are $145 an hour to search. OK. We know where the bat was, so hopefully this will be $145 well spent.
The guy's partner arrives and we show him the location. He searches and finds nothing. He lets us know that a bat only needs a quarter inch opening to hide in, so he's not surprised he can't find him. He suggests we all go for rabies shots just in case, leaves a pamphlet and says to call if the bat returns (when I ask even at 3am, he's a bit hesitant).
That night I come home from a rehearsal around 11pm to find Tash and Malcolm waiting for me in the basement. He won't go to sleep. So we take him for a drive and discuss bringing him into our room when he does. We're out for about 45 minutes and he finally falls asleep...but instead of bringing him into our bed like we discussed, I put him in his bed and close his door as we normally do.
We put all the lights on in our bathroom/closet area and close the pocket door. Tash falls asleep, but I'm having problems. At 3am I go to the bathroom. While sitting there minding my own business, I hear a thump against the window screen. Bruce (my name for our visitor) has returned and he's staring right at me. I run out faster than I've ever run before and reshut the pocket door. I wake my wife informing her the bat is back/still here. We formulate a game plan.
We shut the door to our room. We pull open a window, yank our the screen and turn on all the lights. We then open the pocket door. Bruce comes flying out and proceeds to flap around us ignoring the open window escape route. Tash crawls over to the bed and grabs a blanket which I attempt to throw over the bat (no success, it drives him behind a window shade). We carefully escape from the room.
Downstairs we call the people who we had already called. There is no answer so we leave a message. I think yank open the phone book and start looking for ads under "Pest Control" that have the words "bat" "emergency" and 24 Hour" in them. We pick the first one and call, waking a woman and her husband. The husband says its $150 for an after hours call and that I should go shut the window cause if he's coming out there had better be a bat. I go and do so, but don't see the bat in the process.
The guy arrives and proceeds to go upstairs and start his search. He turns off every light in the room and spends the next hour looking in every crack and crevice (and there are a lot). He eventually gives up and tells us he can't find anything. Now it may have gone out the window, but it may not have. If the bat reappears, even if its right after he leaves, we are to call him on his cell phone and he'll come right back. He even says he's gonna come back over the weekend and check the outside of the house as well as the attic for any openings or other bats. And he's only charging us $75 instead of the quoted $150 (I pay that anyway as I was grateful he was so much more helpful than the earlier guy). On leaving, he suggested we call our doctors and set up appointments to get rabies shots just in case. He leaves us pamphlets from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) stating the same thing. All of the online stuff I've read has also said we should all get shots.
In the morning (which sounds like it was hours later, but it wasn't...Tash & I slept in the den, she on the couch, me on the floor), we decided that we'd all go to New Haven together since Tash had a paying gig on a film and was too tired to drive alone and I was too tired to watch Malcolm alone. So on the way we called doctors.
Malcolm's pediatrician asked many questions about Malcolm's proximity to the bat. As far as we could tell, there was no reason to think Malcolm had been exposed to the bat. Both times he was in his room with the door closed and the bat stayed in our room/bathroom (with a brief foray into the hall that first night). His doctor didn't think he should get the rabies shots since there was no reason to suspect exposure (had Malcolm been in the same room at any point she would have recommended putting a 2 year old through a series of shots...thankfully I had the sense to not bring him into our room that second night).
Now, our doctor basically said we'd know if we were bitten and there was no reason to get the shots and hung up (okay...I'm exaggerating, but that's what it felt like). Malcolm's pediatrician even suggested that Tash & I get the shots. We talked over our options (and even got advice from family members and friends we trust...let's face it, we were working on making important decisions with very little sleep), to get the shots or not get the shots. Since we didn't have the bat, we couldn't get it tested for rabies. So that wasn't an option to help. It was either not get the shots and hope for the best (with the worst case being one of us does have it and dies an agonizing horrible painful death and then the survivor sues our doctor for malpractise) or get the shots and have peace of mind. We decided we'd rather be safe than sorry and went down to the Emergency Room (we left Malcolm with a friend who has been staying in our basement also away from the bat).
When I was in the hospital five years ago for my aneurysm, I had lots of shots. And in spite of my father's antiquated warnings of 20 needles in the stomach, I knew this would be easier to take than death. Turns out the rabies vaccine is a series of shots. The first day you get two...well...sort of two. The first is a shot in the arm with one drug. The second is a series of shots in the lower back/upper ass of a second drug based on your size. Needless to say, I'm a big guy. I got six shots (two in each ass cheek and one in each thigh). Tash got 5 (all in the ass). We now have to go back on specific days (all counted after the first day of shots) to get subsequent injections of the first drug. So all we get now is a shot in the arm four more times (Day 3, Day 7, Day 14 and Day 28). Not a big deal when you're other option could be death.
Call me a hypocondriac on this one if you like...I feel better mentally...we even slept better last night...although we all slept at my mom's. Tonight, we're sleeping at home and we've got a game plan if Bruce reappears. Lock him in our room again and call the second guy right away no matter what time it is. He said he'd stay until he caught the bat.
So that's our birthday presents to each other this year. Peace of mind.
I'll let you know if we ever see Bruce the Bat again.
Be seeing you.
In honor of our birthdays we decided to get rabies vaccinations on August 17th.
What brought us to this decision? Funny you should ask? (though you probably didn't, you're gonna hear it anyway).
August 15th was a long day. Natasha was at a workshop from about 8am until 3pm and then we had to go into NYC for my grandfather's 94th birthday dinner. We got back from NYC around 9pm, dropped my parents at their house, took Malcolm home put him in bed and retired for the evening. Tash was exhausted and promptly fell asleep. I always take a while to unwind, but by 11:30 I was in bed.
At 5am I'm aroused by a sound. It's still dark outside. So I look at the clock and register the time. I listen and hear this fluttering sound. Upon looking up I see this small dark object circling over our heads. I promptly start turning on every light I can reach to confirm that we have a bat in our bedroom.
Tash, groggily wakes, registers my concerns and hides under the covers.
I go screaming like a girl across the room, ducking as low as I can, turning on even more lights. I quickly dart out of our room into the laundry room and yank the screen, open the window and turn on the lights. Of course, now every insect in America is starting to come in, but maybe the bat will leave. Luckily, Malcolm's door is closed and he's asleep.
The bat never leaves our room and eventually flies into our bathroom. I quickly shut the pocket door that separates our bathroom from our bedroom and then close up the laundry room. At least the bat is "trapped" and we can call animal control in the morning.
No one sleeps the rest of the "night". Well...that means mostly me as I'm on line researching what to do if there's a bat in the house.
Frightening stories go past my eyes as I read of what to do and what not to do. I don't think the bat bit either of us, but apparently there's a chance you may not know. Thankfully, Malcolm was nowhere near the bat. We call a place that handles bats at a "reasonable" hour (8am) and the guy says he or his partner will come between 11am and 1pm and his rates are $145 an hour to search. OK. We know where the bat was, so hopefully this will be $145 well spent.
The guy's partner arrives and we show him the location. He searches and finds nothing. He lets us know that a bat only needs a quarter inch opening to hide in, so he's not surprised he can't find him. He suggests we all go for rabies shots just in case, leaves a pamphlet and says to call if the bat returns (when I ask even at 3am, he's a bit hesitant).
That night I come home from a rehearsal around 11pm to find Tash and Malcolm waiting for me in the basement. He won't go to sleep. So we take him for a drive and discuss bringing him into our room when he does. We're out for about 45 minutes and he finally falls asleep...but instead of bringing him into our bed like we discussed, I put him in his bed and close his door as we normally do.
We put all the lights on in our bathroom/closet area and close the pocket door. Tash falls asleep, but I'm having problems. At 3am I go to the bathroom. While sitting there minding my own business, I hear a thump against the window screen. Bruce (my name for our visitor) has returned and he's staring right at me. I run out faster than I've ever run before and reshut the pocket door. I wake my wife informing her the bat is back/still here. We formulate a game plan.
We shut the door to our room. We pull open a window, yank our the screen and turn on all the lights. We then open the pocket door. Bruce comes flying out and proceeds to flap around us ignoring the open window escape route. Tash crawls over to the bed and grabs a blanket which I attempt to throw over the bat (no success, it drives him behind a window shade). We carefully escape from the room.
Downstairs we call the people who we had already called. There is no answer so we leave a message. I think yank open the phone book and start looking for ads under "Pest Control" that have the words "bat" "emergency" and 24 Hour" in them. We pick the first one and call, waking a woman and her husband. The husband says its $150 for an after hours call and that I should go shut the window cause if he's coming out there had better be a bat. I go and do so, but don't see the bat in the process.
The guy arrives and proceeds to go upstairs and start his search. He turns off every light in the room and spends the next hour looking in every crack and crevice (and there are a lot). He eventually gives up and tells us he can't find anything. Now it may have gone out the window, but it may not have. If the bat reappears, even if its right after he leaves, we are to call him on his cell phone and he'll come right back. He even says he's gonna come back over the weekend and check the outside of the house as well as the attic for any openings or other bats. And he's only charging us $75 instead of the quoted $150 (I pay that anyway as I was grateful he was so much more helpful than the earlier guy). On leaving, he suggested we call our doctors and set up appointments to get rabies shots just in case. He leaves us pamphlets from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) stating the same thing. All of the online stuff I've read has also said we should all get shots.
In the morning (which sounds like it was hours later, but it wasn't...Tash & I slept in the den, she on the couch, me on the floor), we decided that we'd all go to New Haven together since Tash had a paying gig on a film and was too tired to drive alone and I was too tired to watch Malcolm alone. So on the way we called doctors.
Malcolm's pediatrician asked many questions about Malcolm's proximity to the bat. As far as we could tell, there was no reason to think Malcolm had been exposed to the bat. Both times he was in his room with the door closed and the bat stayed in our room/bathroom (with a brief foray into the hall that first night). His doctor didn't think he should get the rabies shots since there was no reason to suspect exposure (had Malcolm been in the same room at any point she would have recommended putting a 2 year old through a series of shots...thankfully I had the sense to not bring him into our room that second night).
Now, our doctor basically said we'd know if we were bitten and there was no reason to get the shots and hung up (okay...I'm exaggerating, but that's what it felt like). Malcolm's pediatrician even suggested that Tash & I get the shots. We talked over our options (and even got advice from family members and friends we trust...let's face it, we were working on making important decisions with very little sleep), to get the shots or not get the shots. Since we didn't have the bat, we couldn't get it tested for rabies. So that wasn't an option to help. It was either not get the shots and hope for the best (with the worst case being one of us does have it and dies an agonizing horrible painful death and then the survivor sues our doctor for malpractise) or get the shots and have peace of mind. We decided we'd rather be safe than sorry and went down to the Emergency Room (we left Malcolm with a friend who has been staying in our basement also away from the bat).
When I was in the hospital five years ago for my aneurysm, I had lots of shots. And in spite of my father's antiquated warnings of 20 needles in the stomach, I knew this would be easier to take than death. Turns out the rabies vaccine is a series of shots. The first day you get two...well...sort of two. The first is a shot in the arm with one drug. The second is a series of shots in the lower back/upper ass of a second drug based on your size. Needless to say, I'm a big guy. I got six shots (two in each ass cheek and one in each thigh). Tash got 5 (all in the ass). We now have to go back on specific days (all counted after the first day of shots) to get subsequent injections of the first drug. So all we get now is a shot in the arm four more times (Day 3, Day 7, Day 14 and Day 28). Not a big deal when you're other option could be death.
Call me a hypocondriac on this one if you like...I feel better mentally...we even slept better last night...although we all slept at my mom's. Tonight, we're sleeping at home and we've got a game plan if Bruce reappears. Lock him in our room again and call the second guy right away no matter what time it is. He said he'd stay until he caught the bat.
So that's our birthday presents to each other this year. Peace of mind.
I'll let you know if we ever see Bruce the Bat again.
Be seeing you.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Damned If You Do...
Today we've got a few brief movie reviews...
But first a rant (which may be a repeat...so I apologize if I've bitched about this before)...
Releasing TV Shows on DVD is a tricky business for the studios. They put out a show's first season and then based on sales they decide to do (or not do) more seasons. We as consumers know this and we buy a show's first season in hopes we'll see more. When it works, we get screwed in the end anyway.
There have been too many instances of a studio actually getting an entire show out on DVD only to turn around and fuck the fans by then releasing a complete series box set with even more material. This has happened several times in the past (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, M*A*S*H, Homicide: Life on the Street), but seems to be more prevalent.
We can now add the upcoming Twin Peaks, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The X-Files and I Love Lucy to this list. Its even more obnoxious in the case of I Love Lucy because fans had been promised that what is now the "bonus" disc in the Complete Series set was going to be part of the last season set when it came out back in May. This wouldn't be too much of an issue if the studios released the bonus disc separately (like Fox kind of did with M*A*S*H in putting the bonus material into a set with the final episode...which was already part of the 11th Season set anyway...but at least a fan wouldn't be forced to buy the whole series over again).
Its one thing to put out an entire series, season by season, and then repackage the whole thing in some bizarre collector's box when they're all out. Its another thing to reward fans by fucking them in the ass by saying "We want you to buy this all over again just to get the special stuff." So a big raspberry to the studios for this marketing ploy (especially Fox & Paramount who seem to be the biggest offenders so far).
There ends the rant.
Saw Becoming Jane. It took a while to decide if I couldn't get into the film because the first 30 minutes were dull or because the three teenage twats behind us wouldn't shut the fuck up. Turned out the film was boring. I didn't know much about Jane Austin going in (aside from being my wife's favorite author) and now I don't think I know much more and don't care at all. Skip it.
The Bourne Ultimatum was an exciting action packed film. As far as plot goes, it feels like it was stitched together as they went along. Since I could barely remember what had happened in the other two films, I guess this didn't matter much. Is it just me or is Albert Finney starting to look and sound like Noah Cross (John Huston's character in Chinatown). If you know anything about movies and have never been to Tangier, you know that the best way to find someone is to run across rooftops while looking at the other buildings. Lastly, the most unbelievable thing in the film (aside from the return of the assassin at the end looking like he had time to take a shower between what looked like his "death" in a car accident and his next appearance) is an overhead shot of a NYC highway with three cars on it. Maybe at 3am, but not during mid-day.
Hot Fuzz is the second film from director Edgar Winters and writer/actor Simon Pegg after (following on Shaun of the Dead). What starts as a very funny sendup (which is the wrong word, because like Shaun this film is much more than that...a sendup exists solely to poke fun at something specific, these films are films in their own rights) turns into a hysterically funny film about a big city cop trying to fit into a small village. Easily one of the funniest films in quite some time with a nice dark twist to it. Look for Timothy Dalton to chew more scenery than he did in and Flash Gordon and The Rocketeer combined, but its all in good form for this film.
Marvel Comics' latest animated offering is Doctor Strange and its the best of the four direct to DVD releases so far. While not being the perfect adaptation of the Sorcerer Supreme's origin, it is a very good one. For anyone who doesn't know (and since he's a B level hero at Marvel, most of you don't), Stephen Strange was an arrogant surgeon whose life is ruined when he gets into a car accident and loses the use of his hands. He searches the world for fixes and eventually winds up in Tibet to discover who he really is and becomes the greatest sorcerer on Earth. The movie is relatively faithful but adds some modern twists and new elements all of which work well for the film.
Well...that's all I've got for today. I don't think I've left anything out. I'll be back over the weekend with a look at the savior of the universe.
Be seeing you.
But first a rant (which may be a repeat...so I apologize if I've bitched about this before)...
Releasing TV Shows on DVD is a tricky business for the studios. They put out a show's first season and then based on sales they decide to do (or not do) more seasons. We as consumers know this and we buy a show's first season in hopes we'll see more. When it works, we get screwed in the end anyway.
There have been too many instances of a studio actually getting an entire show out on DVD only to turn around and fuck the fans by then releasing a complete series box set with even more material. This has happened several times in the past (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, M*A*S*H, Homicide: Life on the Street), but seems to be more prevalent.
We can now add the upcoming Twin Peaks, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The X-Files and I Love Lucy to this list. Its even more obnoxious in the case of I Love Lucy because fans had been promised that what is now the "bonus" disc in the Complete Series set was going to be part of the last season set when it came out back in May. This wouldn't be too much of an issue if the studios released the bonus disc separately (like Fox kind of did with M*A*S*H in putting the bonus material into a set with the final episode...which was already part of the 11th Season set anyway...but at least a fan wouldn't be forced to buy the whole series over again).
Its one thing to put out an entire series, season by season, and then repackage the whole thing in some bizarre collector's box when they're all out. Its another thing to reward fans by fucking them in the ass by saying "We want you to buy this all over again just to get the special stuff." So a big raspberry to the studios for this marketing ploy (especially Fox & Paramount who seem to be the biggest offenders so far).
There ends the rant.
Saw Becoming Jane. It took a while to decide if I couldn't get into the film because the first 30 minutes were dull or because the three teenage twats behind us wouldn't shut the fuck up. Turned out the film was boring. I didn't know much about Jane Austin going in (aside from being my wife's favorite author) and now I don't think I know much more and don't care at all. Skip it.
The Bourne Ultimatum was an exciting action packed film. As far as plot goes, it feels like it was stitched together as they went along. Since I could barely remember what had happened in the other two films, I guess this didn't matter much. Is it just me or is Albert Finney starting to look and sound like Noah Cross (John Huston's character in Chinatown). If you know anything about movies and have never been to Tangier, you know that the best way to find someone is to run across rooftops while looking at the other buildings. Lastly, the most unbelievable thing in the film (aside from the return of the assassin at the end looking like he had time to take a shower between what looked like his "death" in a car accident and his next appearance) is an overhead shot of a NYC highway with three cars on it. Maybe at 3am, but not during mid-day.
Hot Fuzz is the second film from director Edgar Winters and writer/actor Simon Pegg after (following on Shaun of the Dead). What starts as a very funny sendup (which is the wrong word, because like Shaun this film is much more than that...a sendup exists solely to poke fun at something specific, these films are films in their own rights) turns into a hysterically funny film about a big city cop trying to fit into a small village. Easily one of the funniest films in quite some time with a nice dark twist to it. Look for Timothy Dalton to chew more scenery than he did in and Flash Gordon and The Rocketeer combined, but its all in good form for this film.
Marvel Comics' latest animated offering is Doctor Strange and its the best of the four direct to DVD releases so far. While not being the perfect adaptation of the Sorcerer Supreme's origin, it is a very good one. For anyone who doesn't know (and since he's a B level hero at Marvel, most of you don't), Stephen Strange was an arrogant surgeon whose life is ruined when he gets into a car accident and loses the use of his hands. He searches the world for fixes and eventually winds up in Tibet to discover who he really is and becomes the greatest sorcerer on Earth. The movie is relatively faithful but adds some modern twists and new elements all of which work well for the film.
Well...that's all I've got for today. I don't think I've left anything out. I'll be back over the weekend with a look at the savior of the universe.
Be seeing you.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
And So It Begins...Again....Sorta...Maybe?
Most of you know I'm a big fan of Babylon 5. It was a cutting edge TV series whose formula of storytelling is now being aped by pretty much everyone. The show ran its course and served its purpose. But it was a shaky road in getting to the end (all of which series creator J. Michael Straczynski chronicles in a book series entitled The Babylon 5 Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski).
But with the main story told we leave behind a rich legacy of characters and worlds that would be great places to visit from time to time. Since the show left the air in 1998 we've had a few attempts at a resurrection. A companion series Crusade was misunderstood by the network that ordered it and cancelled before it could even air (though the 13 episodes produced did eventually air and are now on DVD). A TV Movie Legend of the Rangers was interesting, but didn't have enough of the characters and stories we loved most.
Now we get a very noble attempt at changing the distribution formula. A direct to DVD production entitled Babylon 5: The Lost Tales. Designed to continue the stories of the characters we have come to know, this new release is good when it could have been great.
Essentially a "longer" episode of the series (clocking in at 72 minutes), we get two stories that are barely linked. Interstellar Alliance President Sheridan (Bruce Boxlitner) is returning to Babylon 5 for the 10th Anniversary of the creation of the IA. In preparation, Colonel Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scoggins) has to deal with a crew member who may be possessed by a demon. Meanwhile, Sheridan is visited by Galen the Technomage (Peter Woodward) who wants him to kill the Centauri Regent Prince who is travelling with him.
While the connection is Sheridan's return to the station, the stories don't really intertwine and can be watched separately. The Lochley story is rather thin and is representative of a rather pedestrian episode of the series. The Sheridan/Galen story is much more interesting. The production looks magnificent when it comes to most of the CGI. In fact, the CGI looks much better than it did on the series. Of course, the trade off here is that since the production was done on the "cheap" as a "test" (if its successful there will be more), the one thing that doesn't look as good as it did is the inside of the station itself. During the series Babylon 5 was a bustling and busy station. Here, it seems empty. A shell of its former self. We get to see mostly empty corridors and small rooms since all the money was spent on a new CGI docking bay. A bit of a shame.
Luckily, Straczynski's writing remains sharp and we get mentions of everyone from the series, including a touching reference to Doctor Franklin and G'Kar (both Richard Biggs and Andreas Katsulas have passed away). And maybe that's part of the larger issue. While it may be nice to see these "lost tales", knowing that two of the characters can never actually return to the screen (even thought they are still alive in the B5 universe) makes watching something like this even more heartbreaking.
For such a short program, the DVD is rounded out by some nice extras including a tribute to each of the late actors, a look at the making of the show and a few other interviews with the actors on display here and the show's creator.
While I hope this does well enough for at least one more (Straczynski stated he originally had three stories for the first one, but the Garibaldi story got too large for the budget of this release), I also hope there's more money and a bit more ambition behind the next one.
I'll be back over the weekend with the savior of the universe.
Be seeing you.
But with the main story told we leave behind a rich legacy of characters and worlds that would be great places to visit from time to time. Since the show left the air in 1998 we've had a few attempts at a resurrection. A companion series Crusade was misunderstood by the network that ordered it and cancelled before it could even air (though the 13 episodes produced did eventually air and are now on DVD). A TV Movie Legend of the Rangers was interesting, but didn't have enough of the characters and stories we loved most.
Now we get a very noble attempt at changing the distribution formula. A direct to DVD production entitled Babylon 5: The Lost Tales. Designed to continue the stories of the characters we have come to know, this new release is good when it could have been great.
Essentially a "longer" episode of the series (clocking in at 72 minutes), we get two stories that are barely linked. Interstellar Alliance President Sheridan (Bruce Boxlitner) is returning to Babylon 5 for the 10th Anniversary of the creation of the IA. In preparation, Colonel Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scoggins) has to deal with a crew member who may be possessed by a demon. Meanwhile, Sheridan is visited by Galen the Technomage (Peter Woodward) who wants him to kill the Centauri Regent Prince who is travelling with him.
While the connection is Sheridan's return to the station, the stories don't really intertwine and can be watched separately. The Lochley story is rather thin and is representative of a rather pedestrian episode of the series. The Sheridan/Galen story is much more interesting. The production looks magnificent when it comes to most of the CGI. In fact, the CGI looks much better than it did on the series. Of course, the trade off here is that since the production was done on the "cheap" as a "test" (if its successful there will be more), the one thing that doesn't look as good as it did is the inside of the station itself. During the series Babylon 5 was a bustling and busy station. Here, it seems empty. A shell of its former self. We get to see mostly empty corridors and small rooms since all the money was spent on a new CGI docking bay. A bit of a shame.
Luckily, Straczynski's writing remains sharp and we get mentions of everyone from the series, including a touching reference to Doctor Franklin and G'Kar (both Richard Biggs and Andreas Katsulas have passed away). And maybe that's part of the larger issue. While it may be nice to see these "lost tales", knowing that two of the characters can never actually return to the screen (even thought they are still alive in the B5 universe) makes watching something like this even more heartbreaking.
For such a short program, the DVD is rounded out by some nice extras including a tribute to each of the late actors, a look at the making of the show and a few other interviews with the actors on display here and the show's creator.
While I hope this does well enough for at least one more (Straczynski stated he originally had three stories for the first one, but the Garibaldi story got too large for the budget of this release), I also hope there's more money and a bit more ambition behind the next one.
I'll be back over the weekend with the savior of the universe.
Be seeing you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)