Making Magic Happen

*now playing: "The Emperor's Soundtrack" from Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor*

I typically listen to music while writing a blog, so a lot of the time I just want to let you in on what's happening inside my head while I give you some insight on what's happening in my life.

I hope that didn't sound stupid or pretentious.

Anyway, life has been crazy lately. For those of you who have read the last entry entitled Drama Queens and Divas, I have a Rule #3.  This rule pertains to those who live and/or work with people that you may have just met.  

Rule #3 is DON'T BE GROSS

I understand that being gross can be a little vague, but please allow me to explain a bit, through a series of guidelines:

(1) chewing with your mouth open and making strange sounds while doing so is gross

(2) everyone has a particular odor, but there is no need for everyone in the room to smell your odor while you are nowhere near the party.

(3) if you want to be nice and courteous and all that, it might be considered okay to not flush at night, as long as you are the first person awake and will flush before the others find out. to put it shortly, "it's okay to not flush as long as you don't forget to flush."

The flushing guideline may cause a bit of an uproar, so please exercise this at your own discretion. If you think it's wise to flush immediately, please do so.

I do feel like a rule is discovered every week, so there might be a Rule 5 next week. Rule #4 is to observe rules 1 - 3.

Anyway, to get away from this rule stuff, let's go through the past week. We had a rough week and although it's the Sunday before Thanksgiving break, it looks like we are all still not fully recovered. We did about 14 shows, and 1 space in particular was very special (special not being positive or negative). I believe it was early in the week (it honestly feels like a month ago), but we had to do a load-in in the rain. Doing a load-in really sucks in the rain, but on top of that, the space was tiny, without a ramp,  and it didn't really have the power we needed in order to use our lights. We somehow did the impossible.

I'm reminded of this moment many years ago it seems, in which the director of a particular show I once did wasn't happy with our rehearsal. She said "You guys just hop up there and expect magic to happen for you. Well I got a little surprise for you, there is no magic. Now repeat after me, there is no magic."

Us: "There is no magic!"

Director: "Unless I make it happen."

Us: "Unless I make it happen!"

I can honestly say that for this particular rainy day when it seemed like the absolute worse is going to happen, we made something out of nothing, we made magic happen for a few hundred kids that day.  They may never realize or understand, but they will probably never forget.  I am proud of my cast. It seems like things are impossible, but we manage to pull it off without the last second miracle, we just keep chopping at the tree until it falls for us.

*now listening to "Pills" by Lupe Fiasco From the MTV My Block: Chicago album, I guess it's a Lupe Fiasco day. A few select lyrics, "but righteousness is a father teaching his kids that's better than wealth is the respecting of self"*

my near brush with death and other adventures

here it is...been a long time coming, but it's finally here........

blog entry number 50 (fiddy, to some)

i really wanted this to be a monumental occasion, but i don't really have that much to say (that's at least interesting)

but before i go on, shout out to marco
i appreciate the comment and i like your work. everybody that reads this blog should definitely check out marco's blog

now it just so happens that my 50th entry happens to be during the first week back on tour. the first week back has been a journal all on its own. we started our little journal in delaware. i don't know a lot about delaware, i've been there a couple of times, but that was solely for family.

but anyway, i just want to ask this one question...
who starts a tour in delaware?

let's this one thing straight. i'm am not disrespecting delaware by any means, it's a nice place and all. i just wonder because we had to drive from massachusetts to delaware. the thing is that we will definitely perform in virginia in like november, and we perform in massachusetts later this week.

it's just a little weird to go south...and then north, only to go back south later.

at the same time, i'm not hating on the company and the office personnel that organized this (they do a lot of work and they try to accommodate my needs/wants to the best of their ability). i love them all, they sign my checks. i just wonder why start in delaware?

a week in delaware was a very busy week. 13 shows in 5 days. for those who don't know, we do a very high energy show that involves me juggling, running, jumping, break dancing...basically me sweating about half of my body weight. after doing 3 shows in a day, there's not really much left for me to do...because i'm not able to.

i do have an issue with delaware. of all the states i've been to/performed in, i never had to deal with a parking meter after 6pm. we went to this one place after 7:30. we left before 10 i believe. the next morning around 7am, we noticed a ticket on the van that was issued at 8:40pm the night before. who reads parking meters at that hour? you can't even see the meters due to the darkness.

but enough of that.
the first week of tour can be weird simply because you're with new people. even though i did rehearse with these two, i don't know them and they don't know me. it can be pretty cumbersome at times, everything is virtually new no matter how many times you may have rehearsed. we're still trying to develop a consistent rhythm to the show and i guess to each other.

i've done this show a lot and new things continue to happen. i nearly died this past week in delaware while on stage. the drawstring from my hoodie went in my mouth as i inhaled causing the string to go down a pipe resulting in me choking mid-show. luckily it was a drawstring so i pulled it out. it all happened so quick and nobody noticed that i began to choke, which happens to be the story of my life in a way.

a few days later we thought we lost a prop. we searched everywhere for it. the "lost" juggling ball happened to be in a magic bag that must be really magic, like harry potter magic because all three of us searched that bag multiple times, i emptied the bag and didn't find the ball. things like this make me hate magic.

all in all, the week has been a good one though. just a long one and we are all tired. we did have a few newspaper interviews, we performed in a brand new school (the stage had never been used before, which was cool to break in).

currently we are in maryland for a few days, so that means crabcakes!

anyway, i've said enough for my 50th entry.

later everyone!