Aack! It's snowing!! It's 30 degrees, overcast, west wind at 9 mph, 100% humidity, and big, wet, clumpy flakes of snow falling gently and clinging meltily (is that an adverb?!) to windshield wiper blades and shoulders of jackets and eyelashes and the tops of hedges. A while ago (I don't remember how long), we awoke one morning to find a light dusting of snow on the ground, but it disappeared quickly (still, the girls insisted on wearing snow boots to school that day). Today's snow just might mean the beginning of longer-lasting white stuff. At breakfast the girls cheered at the sight of falling snow and asked about going outside to start digging a tunnel in the snow, so I know they're committed to having it around for a while.
Last night Susan and I had my first-cousin-once-removed Rachelle (a freshman at UND) over for supper. This is one of the rare weekends that she has stayed in Grand Forks for the weekend since school began, so we were lucky to be able to have her come over. After supper she stayed to babysit so that we could attend UND's first play of the theatre season, the musical Grease by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. We attended with two couples who are friends of ours and, after the show, went to the Blue Moose in East Grand Forks for appetizers and beverages, joining another couple there. It was a fun evening out.
And the production was very fun, too. We know many of the people on the production team, from our friends Job Christenson and Darin Kerr (the director and music director) to department faculty Greg Gillette (scenic and lighting designer) and staff Loren Liepold (sound designer and technical director) to pit musician Marlys Murphy. This was the first show at UND costumed by new faculty member Tracey Lyons and choreographed by guest artist/faculty Patricia Downey, and both did well. Job is a choreographer, too, so I can't say what dances he was responsible for and what Downey did, but the movement overall worked well.
In the cast were my friends Jesi Mullins, Chris Harder, Casey Paradies, Patrick O'Neal, and Jared Kinney, all of whom were enjoyable to watch. Other standouts: David Barta as Danny, Kelly MacLeod as Miss Lynch, and Michelle McCauley as Jan (loved, loved, LOVED her!!). A fellow alumnus of Tioga High School, recent graduate Troy Guttormson, was in the cast, too. If for no other reason than our Tioga connection, I found myself watching him and liking a lot of what he did on stage, too.
(Incidentally, his mom was my third-grade teacher! Back then she was Ms. Christianson, the very first "Ms." I'd ever met or even heard of. She told tales of her ex-husband, whom she referred to as "The Hulk" for his mean temper. In retrospect, that seems like something we probably didn't need to hear about, but I liked her a lot and was amused by her Hulk stories at the time. She was one teacher to whom I gave a May basket one spring. The traditional procedure is to drop off the May basket when the recipient isn't looking. The recipient must then try to discover the gift giver's identity and pay him/her back with a kiss. Ms. Christianson figured out it was I and pretended, during sustained silent reading time, to need something from a shelf over my desk. She reached up to retrieve it, and on her way down, she pecked my cheek! Awesome!!)
Grease was a lot of fun for the usual reasons: the familiar and energetic music, the comical characters, the sense of nostalgia (for a time period I wasn't even alive for, by the way!), the identification with eternal issues of high school-dom (is that a noun?!), etc. Another reason I liked it was because of something Job is very good at (as my friend Larry and I have often discussed): keeping the stage alive with movement. Regarding that, there are two extremes that I have seen from some directors: have actors move around so much and so frenetically that the movement seems purposeless, unplanned, and chaotic; or have actors move around so little that it seems unblocked, under-choreographed, and static.
Job strikes a balance. There's enough movement to keep the audience's attention without distracting from the lines, the music, or the meaning of the scene. Not only is each scene well blocked, but transitions are well blocked, too! In this production, that is achieved by playing classic radio commercials from the era while actors cross the stage in brief vignettes that add to the realism of the characters' world: conducting school elections, getting yearbooks signed, making out in the park, practicing for the track team, etc. The transitions don't drag on too long; they last just long enough to add texture to the world of the play and give some of the supporting players a chance to strut their stuff, too. Having seen several productions directed by Job, I've come to appreciate this skill of his. Most audience members probably never notice it, and that's to his credit, too. We watch his plays and think how seamlessly the scenes flow; the directing is, to most people, invisible, and that's as it should be.
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Thursday, October 20, 2005
I'm Gonna Be in a Commercial!
Disclaimer: Being in a commercial is not THAT big a deal in that (1) I have been in a few before; (2) it will be run locally where I am already known, not nationally where I could achieve some fame; (3) I'm not getting paid to do it (as far as I know); and (4) it's really an on-air public service announcement (PSA) rather than commercial advertising.
That said, I'm gonna be in a commercial! The UND Television Center contacted me a couple weeks ago wondering whether my family and I would be willing to be in a PSA for UND Athletics. They want to curb poor sportsmanship at UND athletic events, so they came up with an idea for a PSA: film a dad swearing in front of his child at a sporting event, then show that child repeating the obscene language at home, then emphasize that your inappropriate behavior at athletic events is being noticed by EVERYBODY in attendance. Point: Don't do it!
The filming is happening in two stages. Stage one was this past Tuesday night. My oldest daughter, seven-year-old Suzanna, accompanied me to the Ralph Engelstad Arena (REA). REA staff had assembled popcorn, candy, (empty) soda cups, green-and-white pom poms--stuff that spectators would normally have while watching a hockey game. The REA and Television Center had also arranged for a couple dozen people to be there to portray other spectators. They were all bedecked in the green and white clothing of UND fans. They were given food and directed, with Suzanna and me, to a section of the arena where filming was to take place.
Several minutes were spent arranging and rearranging spectators to make the section of the arena visible in the camera shots look as crowded as it would be at an actual hockey game. It was "open ice" time at the arena that night, so there were a handful of people skating; everyone was directed to watch one skater in particular so that we would all appear to be watching the same action of the fictional hockey game. They set up the camera for our first scene, and Suzanna and I had to walk into the camera shot, find our seats, sit down, watch the game, and appear excited.
Next shot: Suzanna thanks me for taking her to the game, and I say, "No problem!" Next shot: I see a fictional ref make a fictional call that I don't like, and I get up and swear at him. Next shot: I swear again and sit down, and now Suzanna is visible staring at me in shock, her mouth agape. They shot each scene two or three times so they will have options when editing the final cut later. They also changed the camera angles and reshot scenes, again for more options later; they got Suzanna's reaction from a couple different angles, and they shot me swearing from a couple different angles, too.
The swearing will be bleeped out of the actual PSA, but that didn't mean we wanted to do any actual swearing during the filming--not in front of my daughter or the other children portraying spectators there that night! So I shouted at the ref to open his "funny eyes," and I called him a "funny icepole." The people sitting in the farthest-back rows during shooting said that, from where they sat, they thought I was saying the actual naughty words! (Watching the monitor after shooting that night, I had to admit that it looked realistic, too!) Suzanna didn't seem fazed, though. Still, I reminded her that she oughtn't to go to school and call kids on the playground "funny icepoles"!
Next Tuesday night, the crew will come to our house to film the scenes at the home of the naughty UND athletic event spectator, where his wife asks how the game was, and the daughter says that it was okay but that the ref was a "funny icepole." Cut to the dad's mouth agape this time and the mom's shocked expression and the sound of silence broken only by the clink of a dropped fork! The PSA will then conclude with a message about watching what you say at the games you attend.
Suzanna was scheduled to have her long hair cut off tomorrow to donate to Locks of Love, but we had to cancel that appointment since she has to look the same in next Tuesday's scene as she did in this Tuesday's scene. She was disappointed about that; but otherwise she had a blast during the filming itself and did a great job. Afterward the director, his wife, a couple "spectators" from the PSA, and Suzanna and I went to Paulo's Restaurant in East Grand Forks for a snack. There we found out that the PSA will not run (as I had assumed) on local cable channel 3, home of UND's Studio One television program. No, instead, it will run . . . before every UND hockey and football game as an immediate reminder to spectators about their behavior!! I hope people are amused and don't think that I actually said such foul language in front of my little girl! Otherwise, I could get some dirty looks around the Grand Cities in the coming months!
That said, I'm gonna be in a commercial! The UND Television Center contacted me a couple weeks ago wondering whether my family and I would be willing to be in a PSA for UND Athletics. They want to curb poor sportsmanship at UND athletic events, so they came up with an idea for a PSA: film a dad swearing in front of his child at a sporting event, then show that child repeating the obscene language at home, then emphasize that your inappropriate behavior at athletic events is being noticed by EVERYBODY in attendance. Point: Don't do it!
The filming is happening in two stages. Stage one was this past Tuesday night. My oldest daughter, seven-year-old Suzanna, accompanied me to the Ralph Engelstad Arena (REA). REA staff had assembled popcorn, candy, (empty) soda cups, green-and-white pom poms--stuff that spectators would normally have while watching a hockey game. The REA and Television Center had also arranged for a couple dozen people to be there to portray other spectators. They were all bedecked in the green and white clothing of UND fans. They were given food and directed, with Suzanna and me, to a section of the arena where filming was to take place.
Several minutes were spent arranging and rearranging spectators to make the section of the arena visible in the camera shots look as crowded as it would be at an actual hockey game. It was "open ice" time at the arena that night, so there were a handful of people skating; everyone was directed to watch one skater in particular so that we would all appear to be watching the same action of the fictional hockey game. They set up the camera for our first scene, and Suzanna and I had to walk into the camera shot, find our seats, sit down, watch the game, and appear excited.
Next shot: Suzanna thanks me for taking her to the game, and I say, "No problem!" Next shot: I see a fictional ref make a fictional call that I don't like, and I get up and swear at him. Next shot: I swear again and sit down, and now Suzanna is visible staring at me in shock, her mouth agape. They shot each scene two or three times so they will have options when editing the final cut later. They also changed the camera angles and reshot scenes, again for more options later; they got Suzanna's reaction from a couple different angles, and they shot me swearing from a couple different angles, too.
The swearing will be bleeped out of the actual PSA, but that didn't mean we wanted to do any actual swearing during the filming--not in front of my daughter or the other children portraying spectators there that night! So I shouted at the ref to open his "funny eyes," and I called him a "funny icepole." The people sitting in the farthest-back rows during shooting said that, from where they sat, they thought I was saying the actual naughty words! (Watching the monitor after shooting that night, I had to admit that it looked realistic, too!) Suzanna didn't seem fazed, though. Still, I reminded her that she oughtn't to go to school and call kids on the playground "funny icepoles"!
Next Tuesday night, the crew will come to our house to film the scenes at the home of the naughty UND athletic event spectator, where his wife asks how the game was, and the daughter says that it was okay but that the ref was a "funny icepole." Cut to the dad's mouth agape this time and the mom's shocked expression and the sound of silence broken only by the clink of a dropped fork! The PSA will then conclude with a message about watching what you say at the games you attend.
Suzanna was scheduled to have her long hair cut off tomorrow to donate to Locks of Love, but we had to cancel that appointment since she has to look the same in next Tuesday's scene as she did in this Tuesday's scene. She was disappointed about that; but otherwise she had a blast during the filming itself and did a great job. Afterward the director, his wife, a couple "spectators" from the PSA, and Suzanna and I went to Paulo's Restaurant in East Grand Forks for a snack. There we found out that the PSA will not run (as I had assumed) on local cable channel 3, home of UND's Studio One television program. No, instead, it will run . . . before every UND hockey and football game as an immediate reminder to spectators about their behavior!! I hope people are amused and don't think that I actually said such foul language in front of my little girl! Otherwise, I could get some dirty looks around the Grand Cities in the coming months!
Sunday, October 16, 2005
PRACS Meals
I was just released from PRACS after my third and final weekend of this study. It was notable for all the papers (of my students) that I was able to read and comment on while there each weekend, for all the pleasure reading I had time to do (read this and this for media updates), and for the awful food.
I don't mean to imply that PRACS food is inherently awful. On the contrary, I have usually been perfectly happy with the food they serve. First of all, it's free. Second of all, they serve night-time snacks to tide you over, since most studies don't include breakfast. Third of all, it's often stuff that I would eat at home anyway: salads, burgers, chicken, stew, cookies, cake, milk, etc.
But this study was different. For some reason, the drug company wanted everyone served a low-calorie (read: "low-flavor") diet while there. The exception was breakfast, served to only half the group (thankfully, that included me), which was supposed to be high-fat: two eggs fried in butter, two strips of bacon, one carton of whole milk, two fried hashbrown patties, and two pieces of "toast" with one pat of butter (toast should, in my opinion, have been in the toaster long enough to acquire some color and some crispness; PRACS' "toast" is notorious for being cold and not much darker or firmer than bread from a bag; no amount of the butter ever melts when put in contact with their "toast"). Otherwise, here was my meal schedule (identical each of the three weekends of the study):
Friday night supper (6:30 P.M.): 1 carton low-fat milk and 1 glass water, 2 ounces of flavorless steamed chicken breast (2?! nearly invisible!!), shredded lettuce with no-fat Ranch dressing, some corn, a slice of no-fat angel food cake, and the world's largest baked potato served with no-fat imitation butter product and no-fat sour cream-like product
Friday night snack (9:30 P.M.): nothing!
Saturday morning breakfast (7:30 A.M.): (see above)
Saturday dinner (1:00 P.M.): 1 carton low-fat milk and 1 glass water, 1 slice of flavorless processed turkey or chicken product on 2 slices of whole-wheat bread with shredded lettuce on it, 1 packet of prepared mustard, 1 bag of oven-baked potato chips, two-thirds of a stalk of celery, 1 bag of "baby carrots" (shavings of a carrot), no-fat Ranch dressing for dipping the raw veggies, a dill pickle spear, and a dish of canned peaches
Saturday night supper (6:00 P.M.): 1 carton low-fat milk and 1 glass water, 2 ounces (?!) of flavorless steamed chicken breast, 1 mound of flavorless rice pilaf, some canned green beans, a sour-dough roll, shredded lettuce with no-fat Ranch dressing, and a dish of fruit cocktail
Saturday night snack (9:30 P.M.): nothing!
Sunday morning breakfast (7:30 A.M.): nothing!
When I do a PRACS study, I'm getting paid to do it, and I accept the inconveniences involved, including eating whatever they happen to offer. And it certainly didn't kill me to eat some healthy meals for the past three weekends; but I can tell you, I much prefer my wife's healthy-yet-flavorful cooking to what I ate at PRACS during this study!
I don't mean to imply that PRACS food is inherently awful. On the contrary, I have usually been perfectly happy with the food they serve. First of all, it's free. Second of all, they serve night-time snacks to tide you over, since most studies don't include breakfast. Third of all, it's often stuff that I would eat at home anyway: salads, burgers, chicken, stew, cookies, cake, milk, etc.
But this study was different. For some reason, the drug company wanted everyone served a low-calorie (read: "low-flavor") diet while there. The exception was breakfast, served to only half the group (thankfully, that included me), which was supposed to be high-fat: two eggs fried in butter, two strips of bacon, one carton of whole milk, two fried hashbrown patties, and two pieces of "toast" with one pat of butter (toast should, in my opinion, have been in the toaster long enough to acquire some color and some crispness; PRACS' "toast" is notorious for being cold and not much darker or firmer than bread from a bag; no amount of the butter ever melts when put in contact with their "toast"). Otherwise, here was my meal schedule (identical each of the three weekends of the study):
Friday night supper (6:30 P.M.): 1 carton low-fat milk and 1 glass water, 2 ounces of flavorless steamed chicken breast (2?! nearly invisible!!), shredded lettuce with no-fat Ranch dressing, some corn, a slice of no-fat angel food cake, and the world's largest baked potato served with no-fat imitation butter product and no-fat sour cream-like product
Friday night snack (9:30 P.M.): nothing!
Saturday morning breakfast (7:30 A.M.): (see above)
Saturday dinner (1:00 P.M.): 1 carton low-fat milk and 1 glass water, 1 slice of flavorless processed turkey or chicken product on 2 slices of whole-wheat bread with shredded lettuce on it, 1 packet of prepared mustard, 1 bag of oven-baked potato chips, two-thirds of a stalk of celery, 1 bag of "baby carrots" (shavings of a carrot), no-fat Ranch dressing for dipping the raw veggies, a dill pickle spear, and a dish of canned peaches
Saturday night supper (6:00 P.M.): 1 carton low-fat milk and 1 glass water, 2 ounces (?!) of flavorless steamed chicken breast, 1 mound of flavorless rice pilaf, some canned green beans, a sour-dough roll, shredded lettuce with no-fat Ranch dressing, and a dish of fruit cocktail
Saturday night snack (9:30 P.M.): nothing!
Sunday morning breakfast (7:30 A.M.): nothing!
When I do a PRACS study, I'm getting paid to do it, and I accept the inconveniences involved, including eating whatever they happen to offer. And it certainly didn't kill me to eat some healthy meals for the past three weekends; but I can tell you, I much prefer my wife's healthy-yet-flavorful cooking to what I ate at PRACS during this study!
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