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edenfalling1. A Day of ARGH
Work was very trying today. Partly this is because of the Kentucky Derby -- we sell a lot of the Daily Racing Form right before the Triple Crown races, and people started calling at 8:00am trying to reserve copies -- but it was also because today is Slope Day at Cornell; because I was trying to do a bunch of things beyond the daily list (clearing up a billing question, putting together a transfer to one of our other stores, calling in an order, etc.); and because I was a bit sleep deprived, since my landlords' new baby was a bit restless last night.
*sigh*
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2. Dead Mice, Take Two
In other smoke shop news, I found another dead mouse in the cellar yesterday. This one was in our humidor rather than in the main complex of three rooms. I walked into the humidor and immediately thought something smelled rancid and rotting. My first thought was that the giant box holding our new shipment of Farmer's Gold Additive Free Golden Leaf tobacco had sat in a puddle of something nasty, but the box was dry and clean. So I pulled together the bags of pipe tobacco I'd come down for... after which it finally occurred to me that PM had set a mouse trap on the top shelf a few weeks ago, and this smell was rather ominously similar to the smell of the last dead mouse I'd found...
And I was right. I wrapped the mouse in about five layers of plastic bags, dumped it in the trash upstairs, bleached the shelf, and scrubbed and soaked the trap in bleach-laced water for about an hour, which seems to have decontaminated and de-odorized it well enough.
...
I just want to know why I'm always the one who finds the dead mice!
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3. Longwinded Gossip From the Old Hometown -- Shakespeare, Etc.
The Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey is based in Madison, NJ, my old hometown. They started doing educational outreach programs about twenty years ago, which in practical terms meant they helped the Madison Junior School put on a highly abridged and/or adapted Shakespeare play each fall. (My two were Macbeth in 7th grade -- I was one of 18 witches! -- and Romeo and Juliet in 8th grade -- where I was one of a 5-person 'chorus' who essentially served as narrators/Benvolio/Friar Lawrence.)
They also ran a program called Junior Corps. It began as a set of acting classes, which we paid for by serving as unpaid grunt labor during the summer season -- working the concession stand, ushering, cleaning the theater, etc. I did that for two years, during which I learned to brew coffee, work a very primitive cash register, usher people through narrow aisles in the dark without tripping or stepping on other people's feet, and smile politely while dealing with impossible patrons. I also got to see several plays for free -- I particularly remember an odd version of Richard III that entirely cut Richmond (ie, Henry VII) from the play; Harold Pinter's The Homecoming; Thornton Wilder's Our Town; and a musical version of Two Gentlemen of Verona. (Yes, really. I can even still quote a few of the lyrics.)
Later on, IIRC, they started charging people to be in Junior Corps, which seemed wrong to me -- why should I pay them for my work? -- so I dropped out and had no further relation to the program except seeing a play now and then when my mom got free tickets. (Because their main theater is on the Drew University campus, faculty and staff often get free tickets to dress rehearsals and stuff. I saw a great production of A Midsummer Night's Dream that way.) Around that same time, they changed their name from 'The New Jersey Shakespeare Festival' to 'The Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey' -- partly because they had raised money to build a new main theater and were planning to operate year-round instead of just during the summer, and partly because I think they just wanted to sound more formal.
I dunno. It's great that they were around and interested in community outreach, but my personal experience with them ended on a somewhat disillusioned note.
But for another Madisonian, it's a different story!
Steve Fried was two years ahead of me in high school, and was WAY into theater and art and music and stuff. I remember him as a cheerful and friendly guy, albeit a bit full of himself -- he was definitely talented, but perhaps not quite as talented as he'd need to have been to have fully justified his sometimes rather blustery confidence.
In any case, he has now become a professional theater director, specializing in Shakespeare, and is directing The Comedy of Errors in Madison, from April 30 to May 18.
Let me point you to a few articles:
Hooked on Shakespeare: Madison fan grows up to direct home theater's season opener
Director Stephen Fried comes full circle to Shakespeare Theater NJ
Director at home with the Bard
The Comedy of Errors kicks off the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey's 2008 season
Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey presents 'Comedy' 4/30
The Shakespeare Theater of NJ's page about the play
And here, for the obsessively curious, are some of Steve Fried's other directing credits.
Work was very trying today. Partly this is because of the Kentucky Derby -- we sell a lot of the Daily Racing Form right before the Triple Crown races, and people started calling at 8:00am trying to reserve copies -- but it was also because today is Slope Day at Cornell; because I was trying to do a bunch of things beyond the daily list (clearing up a billing question, putting together a transfer to one of our other stores, calling in an order, etc.); and because I was a bit sleep deprived, since my landlords' new baby was a bit restless last night.
*sigh*
---------------
2. Dead Mice, Take Two
In other smoke shop news, I found another dead mouse in the cellar yesterday. This one was in our humidor rather than in the main complex of three rooms. I walked into the humidor and immediately thought something smelled rancid and rotting. My first thought was that the giant box holding our new shipment of Farmer's Gold Additive Free Golden Leaf tobacco had sat in a puddle of something nasty, but the box was dry and clean. So I pulled together the bags of pipe tobacco I'd come down for... after which it finally occurred to me that PM had set a mouse trap on the top shelf a few weeks ago, and this smell was rather ominously similar to the smell of the last dead mouse I'd found...
And I was right. I wrapped the mouse in about five layers of plastic bags, dumped it in the trash upstairs, bleached the shelf, and scrubbed and soaked the trap in bleach-laced water for about an hour, which seems to have decontaminated and de-odorized it well enough.
...
I just want to know why I'm always the one who finds the dead mice!
---------------
3. Longwinded Gossip From the Old Hometown -- Shakespeare, Etc.
The Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey is based in Madison, NJ, my old hometown. They started doing educational outreach programs about twenty years ago, which in practical terms meant they helped the Madison Junior School put on a highly abridged and/or adapted Shakespeare play each fall. (My two were Macbeth in 7th grade -- I was one of 18 witches! -- and Romeo and Juliet in 8th grade -- where I was one of a 5-person 'chorus' who essentially served as narrators/Benvolio/Friar Lawrence.)
They also ran a program called Junior Corps. It began as a set of acting classes, which we paid for by serving as unpaid grunt labor during the summer season -- working the concession stand, ushering, cleaning the theater, etc. I did that for two years, during which I learned to brew coffee, work a very primitive cash register, usher people through narrow aisles in the dark without tripping or stepping on other people's feet, and smile politely while dealing with impossible patrons. I also got to see several plays for free -- I particularly remember an odd version of Richard III that entirely cut Richmond (ie, Henry VII) from the play; Harold Pinter's The Homecoming; Thornton Wilder's Our Town; and a musical version of Two Gentlemen of Verona. (Yes, really. I can even still quote a few of the lyrics.)
Later on, IIRC, they started charging people to be in Junior Corps, which seemed wrong to me -- why should I pay them for my work? -- so I dropped out and had no further relation to the program except seeing a play now and then when my mom got free tickets. (Because their main theater is on the Drew University campus, faculty and staff often get free tickets to dress rehearsals and stuff. I saw a great production of A Midsummer Night's Dream that way.) Around that same time, they changed their name from 'The New Jersey Shakespeare Festival' to 'The Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey' -- partly because they had raised money to build a new main theater and were planning to operate year-round instead of just during the summer, and partly because I think they just wanted to sound more formal.
I dunno. It's great that they were around and interested in community outreach, but my personal experience with them ended on a somewhat disillusioned note.
But for another Madisonian, it's a different story!
Steve Fried was two years ahead of me in high school, and was WAY into theater and art and music and stuff. I remember him as a cheerful and friendly guy, albeit a bit full of himself -- he was definitely talented, but perhaps not quite as talented as he'd need to have been to have fully justified his sometimes rather blustery confidence.
In any case, he has now become a professional theater director, specializing in Shakespeare, and is directing The Comedy of Errors in Madison, from April 30 to May 18.
Let me point you to a few articles:
Hooked on Shakespeare: Madison fan grows up to direct home theater's season opener
Director Stephen Fried comes full circle to Shakespeare Theater NJ
Director at home with the Bard
The Comedy of Errors kicks off the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey's 2008 season
Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey presents 'Comedy' 4/30
The Shakespeare Theater of NJ's page about the play
And here, for the obsessively curious, are some of Steve Fried's other directing credits.
