Optimally different!

Next week I'm teaching a class in Manhattan. I love teaching in NYC because it means every evening, when I finish work... I'm in NYC! :D

I already have plans for the following:

The Handsome Little Devils, a nifty-looking vadevillian circus from Boulder that's doing a stint in NY, and about which I posted earlier thanks to taerowyn.

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, about which I have also ZOMGWTF'd before.

NPR had a piece on Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which sounded neat, though I need to do more research.

Similarly considering American Idiot, but not sure. Depends on ticket prices.

What else should I do? Tips on cheap ticket places? There's lots of big spectacle, but I remember fondly the last time I was there, when I went on a whim to a crazy, obscure thing called Evil Dead The Musical and, well, y'all know how that worked out. :)

Ugh. So much of my life goes by unrecorded. I keep doing things that cause me to immediately begin writing journal entries on them even though 99% of those entries never get posted. So tonight I'm going to try and dump some of the stuff that has happened lately. It won't be nearly as artful or elaborate as what I'd made up in my head, but it will be there and it will be (relatively) concise.

I think I'll do this in reverse chronological order:

Last weekend was Intercon.

Damn, I love Intercon. And damn, I love LARPing there. This was my second year and it was such a trip to realize that I actually knew the majority of the faces this time. There were people I'd played with last year, then not seen since, but we immediately started chatting as though it'd only been a week. And then there are the people I get to play with at other events and have started to actually get to know, like the Brandeis crew, who are amazingly friendly, supportive and fun to hang out with.

LARP-wise I seem to have developed something of a reputation as "that guy who plays psychos" (that, or the uber-stressed faction leader everyone needs to talk to), to the point where, when I actually played a reserved, almost stuffy character on Saturday, clintlovesport asked if it was difficult for me to stay calm and stoic for an entire game. =:) This after Friday's game where I was Doctor Frankenstein to his Fenris and, for the second year in a row, one of his characters attempted to ply one of mine with hordes of the undead. I think this is a tradition we must endeavor to maintain.

The down-side of all this is that after the unending social buzz that is Intercon, I tend to be really depressed for most of the next week. It's like coming off of a high. I want desperately to go be in the midst of a crowd, to eat with them, talk with them and play make-believe with them, but the crowd's gone home.

Fortunately, the ever-forethoughtful folks at the BSCF LARP Conspiracy have intentionally planned their Festival of the LARPs to take the edge off a bit. Apr 13-15. Signups start tomorrow! It looks like I might be GMing my first game there, too, which should be exciting and fun. I'm getting more and more into this whole scene. Maybe I'll check out Intercon Mid-Atlantic or even Origins to continue getting my fix this year.

There was also a bit of self-learning to be had at Intercon. People compliment my wacky characters because I have a reasonably quick wit and am willing to act-out and get noticed. On the other hand, straighter characters tend to stand out less and thus get fewer compliments (assuming I'm at least passable at playing straight characters, which I think I am). During the con I became accutely aware of this disparity and found myself having to deal a lot with a part of me that defaults to insecurity unless it's reassured by someone on the outside. In other words, it helped me crystalize an awareness that's been brewing for a while of myself as something of an approval-junkie. I'm not sure what to do with that yet. I still enjoy playing silly characters and I still love hearing that I've helped enhance someone's play experience they way so many have enhanced mine, but it shouldn't leave me feeling insecure if I'm not told "good job" every time I do something, either. That's just not a god place to be. Something to work on, I suppose.

Moving along, the other big thing I haven't journaled about much is my New York trip.

That was a very, very nice gig. Teaching from 1-6pm with the rest of the time spent free-ranging out of a hotel around the corner from the U.N. I walked about 2 miles a day, which is a lot for me, and it felt great. Went to the vegan restaurant abazureonna recommended. The food I ordered was, to be honest, good but not great but the thing that really stood out about the place was that the waitress who met me at the door asked if I'd like to be seated at the "community table". This turned out to be a long table where random people can come and have dinner with other random people. What a fantastic idea!

Eating there was an educational experience in more ways than one. It was educational in the sense that the older Italian fellow gave an impromptu lecture on the first generation of Italian immigrants in New York and the woman sitting next to me talked some about the architectural group she is involved with, which believes that architecture can extend life. But it was also educational in that it really drove a point home to me: I'm uncomfortable around non-geeks. For all my usual extroversion, when I'm in a social situation with "regular people" that doesn't involve a stage I just freeze up. There's this voice in the back of my head saying "They don't care about the things you like. None of the things you're an expert on are going to be subjects of conversation unless you make an ass of yourself by forcing them to be". Of course, there are all kinds of juicy, insecure-o-licious implications in there, so I tried to treat it as an opportunity to get over myself, learn something new and not have anything to be confident about for once. It went well, though I felt a little un-fulfilled afterward. But that, too, is my issue. I've gotta quit expecting every other conversation to produce some kind of profound inter-personal connection. Damn, I miss college.

Another night I walked to the vegan clothing store to finally replace my leather belt, stopped by another vegan restaurant for dinner and some exceptionally yummy sweet-potato cookies and dropped in on a lecture at the local leftist bookstore. Have I mentioned that I love New York yet?

But the highlight of the New York trip was, without a doubt, Evil Dead: The Musical. I saw it on a whim on Thursday, then talked choose_again into coming up to see it on Friday and it was even better the second time. The show is being compared to Rocky and I would dearly love for it to be a regular thing, part party and part show, like that. How many shows can you leave feeling a deep sense of comaraderie with the other people covered in fake blood?



And beyond the novelty of it, it really is a great show. Covering the plot of the first two movies with all the best lines from Army of Darkness, the writers really knew how to play to their audience. The dialogue is hilarious and the music is actually catchy. I've already got the soundtrack pre-ordered.

They've closed in NYC, but they will be touring soon and I've been bugging the producers to bring it through Boston. For those not already on notice about this, if they do come here I intend to fill the front rows with everyone I know. This means you.

Finally, for those who have been bugging me about Second Shift, we've just started pre-production on Season 2. This means that it will still be some months until we have new episodes, but it is happening and hopefully we're going to have a better production process, less time between releases and an overall better product than last season!