For some reason, all I have wanted to watch for a few weeks are really campy movies. I am totally in the mood to watch Hedwig and the Angry Inch again...and I saw The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert for the first time last night. When I think of everything that I need to do this week, it starts to make me panic. Not that it is truly insurmountable, but I do have a lot to do:
-Frozen analysis
-Spirit of the Orient rewrite
-Write my capstone
-Write my capstone proposal
-Set up my TMM book
-Do research for my other capstone
-Write my other capstone
I've finished Just After Sunset. I enjoyed it, and I still say that Stephen King is a much better short story author than he is a novelist. The stories just flow. But, then again, I like his later stuff much better than his earlier stuff.
Now, I'm trucking through Blue Like Jazz. I know, it's like two years too late to be current, but it's interesting. I didn't realize it was a compedium of Christian whatnots, but we'll see if it gets me jump-started thinking about my faith. Maybe. Probably not. I still like being happy.
Christmas
This Christmas has been brought to America by nihilism.
To put it in short:
--I have shopped for three people. I know what I am getting two more of them. Everyone else is still a mystery.
--My family did not get a tree this year. My mother is depressed about this. I don't care about symbols, so we still don't have a tree.
--There's a lot of passive-aggression in the air.
--I'm sick of being home.
I guess I really didn't want to write this post...I need to be in an elsewhere.
To put it in short:
--I have shopped for three people. I know what I am getting two more of them. Everyone else is still a mystery.
--My family did not get a tree this year. My mother is depressed about this. I don't care about symbols, so we still don't have a tree.
--There's a lot of passive-aggression in the air.
--I'm sick of being home.
I guess I really didn't want to write this post...I need to be in an elsewhere.
My Life, The Spin-Off
With K'Fain graduating on Saturday, I am the only main character left in the television series that has been my life. Chris had moved away, demoting himself from a main character to a recurring role that was mostly seen on holiday and weekend shows. Kate left in the middle of last season, leaving me and K'Fain to carry the show all on our own. Thus, when only one character is left to carry on, with only occasional special guest appearances by the previous cast, that makes a spin-off. I hope that it turns out well. It's a new stage.
I'm Mack Freeman, former college wit, now AmeriCorps member and hopeful playwright. The world has gotten so very old.
I'm Mack Freeman, former college wit, now AmeriCorps member and hopeful playwright. The world has gotten so very old.
A Story Worth Telling
So, I'm going to start telling stories, posting the stories from my life sometimes. They'll drop pseudonyms as needed. But, I want to start writing them and putting them out there.
Submitted for the approval of the Memoir Society, I call this story "Nothing But Yams."
It had been a while since Krystin and I had hung out. She had been dealing with personal trouble (to the tune of relationships and all that jazz) and I had been running the sound boards for Shorter College's Dance Concert (imaginatively titled "Light in Motion"). So, we hadn't had a chance to hang out in forever. But, we were taking time and getting back together. And it just so happened that we were playing Magic.
For those of you who weren't nerds in middle school and have thus grown up to productive lives with beautiful spouses, Magic: The Gathering is a trading card game with the conceit that you and your opponent are wizards standing at opposite ends of a battleground. You summon creatures, cast spells and enchantments, and draw power from the land, trying to slay your opponent. Suffice it to say, this game is not sexy. At all. And I hadn't played it in years. My parents had burned my green and black deck in the backyard barbeque, using the pages of a V.C. Andrews novel as kindling. The devil was in these cards and they were not pleased.
But, Krystin and I have an awkward friend. He really enjoys hanging out with Krystin, but he's so awkward that they can't simply hang out; they have to have something to do. So, Krystin came up with the idea of having him teach her how to play Magic so that they could do something instead of attempting to maintain a really awkward conversation.
I digress. Krystin and I were playing on my coffee table, blowing through game after game while we talked to my roommate Nick and his boyfriend William. The theatre department potluck had concluded a few hours before, and we had just been shooting the shit for a while, talking about a little of this and a little of that, but mostly keeping things witty and light. We were talking about how things had gone that semester and how busy everyone had been.
"We haven't hung out in ages." Krystin said.
"Yeah, I know. But you had stuff and I had my English Oral Exam, and it just wasn't a good time." I responded.
William speared another piece of turkey and said "How'd that go, by the way? I never got a chance to ask?"
"It went fine. I mean, I had to read Heart of Darkness and they didn't ask me a single question about it, so that kind of sucked."
Nick got up and opened the window and said, "I've heard that book is awful. Nothing but yams." The conversation hit a brick wall. Krystin and I glanced across the table at each other, mentally trying to figure out what Nick meant by his comment. Finally, I said, "What?"
He looked at me. "My friend Kristi, she hated it when she read it. She just looked at me one day when she was reading it and said 'This book is about nothing but yams. That's all they talk about yams. Africa and yams. Yams, yams, yams."
"There are no yams in Heart of Darkness." Krystin and William nodded. "I mean, if there are, they aren't really a big deal."
"Are you sure? What's that book about?"
"A boat trip up the Congo River."
"Oh, well what book was she talking about?" We didn't know. We tried Googling it, but we couldn't find anything that made any sense. Someone theorized that it might have been Cry! They Beloved Country, but none of us had ever read it. I later read on Wikipedia that yams are a major symbol in Achebe's Things Fall Apart. I loved that book, but I haven't read it in years, so I had no idea. But, from that point on, we started using the phrase "nothing but yams" to describe something that was bad. "The Feast of Caroles is nothing but yams."
And truth be told, Heart of Darkness is nothing but yams.
Submitted for the approval of the Memoir Society, I call this story "Nothing But Yams."
It had been a while since Krystin and I had hung out. She had been dealing with personal trouble (to the tune of relationships and all that jazz) and I had been running the sound boards for Shorter College's Dance Concert (imaginatively titled "Light in Motion"). So, we hadn't had a chance to hang out in forever. But, we were taking time and getting back together. And it just so happened that we were playing Magic.
For those of you who weren't nerds in middle school and have thus grown up to productive lives with beautiful spouses, Magic: The Gathering is a trading card game with the conceit that you and your opponent are wizards standing at opposite ends of a battleground. You summon creatures, cast spells and enchantments, and draw power from the land, trying to slay your opponent. Suffice it to say, this game is not sexy. At all. And I hadn't played it in years. My parents had burned my green and black deck in the backyard barbeque, using the pages of a V.C. Andrews novel as kindling. The devil was in these cards and they were not pleased.
But, Krystin and I have an awkward friend. He really enjoys hanging out with Krystin, but he's so awkward that they can't simply hang out; they have to have something to do. So, Krystin came up with the idea of having him teach her how to play Magic so that they could do something instead of attempting to maintain a really awkward conversation.
I digress. Krystin and I were playing on my coffee table, blowing through game after game while we talked to my roommate Nick and his boyfriend William. The theatre department potluck had concluded a few hours before, and we had just been shooting the shit for a while, talking about a little of this and a little of that, but mostly keeping things witty and light. We were talking about how things had gone that semester and how busy everyone had been.
"We haven't hung out in ages." Krystin said.
"Yeah, I know. But you had stuff and I had my English Oral Exam, and it just wasn't a good time." I responded.
William speared another piece of turkey and said "How'd that go, by the way? I never got a chance to ask?"
"It went fine. I mean, I had to read Heart of Darkness and they didn't ask me a single question about it, so that kind of sucked."
Nick got up and opened the window and said, "I've heard that book is awful. Nothing but yams." The conversation hit a brick wall. Krystin and I glanced across the table at each other, mentally trying to figure out what Nick meant by his comment. Finally, I said, "What?"
He looked at me. "My friend Kristi, she hated it when she read it. She just looked at me one day when she was reading it and said 'This book is about nothing but yams. That's all they talk about yams. Africa and yams. Yams, yams, yams."
"There are no yams in Heart of Darkness." Krystin and William nodded. "I mean, if there are, they aren't really a big deal."
"Are you sure? What's that book about?"
"A boat trip up the Congo River."
"Oh, well what book was she talking about?" We didn't know. We tried Googling it, but we couldn't find anything that made any sense. Someone theorized that it might have been Cry! They Beloved Country, but none of us had ever read it. I later read on Wikipedia that yams are a major symbol in Achebe's Things Fall Apart. I loved that book, but I haven't read it in years, so I had no idea. But, from that point on, we started using the phrase "nothing but yams" to describe something that was bad. "The Feast of Caroles is nothing but yams."
And truth be told, Heart of Darkness is nothing but yams.
Collegiate Experiences
There are nights when college really feels like college. Last night, playing video games, having a drink to Pearl Harbor's b'day (Pearl Harbor being both a man and an event), and discussing life, love, and family with Anna...that's college.
I didn't do a whole lot today. I feel like I've frozen some people out of my life lately because I simply can't deal with them right now. I'm not sure if they blame me or if they even notice. I'm not sure that I care, regardless.
I'm going to be doing a coincidental theatre version of Frozen in January. My cast will be Hannah Jacobs (Agnetha), Charlie Wright (Ralph), and Kathy Newman (Nancy). They've all agreed to go on with the show and with my new concept of "Coincidental Theatre." Because there have been a large number of problems with the second stage, student run productions of AHA, I have decided to do something more in line with my ideals. I will reserve a room on campus for a private function, and I will show up there. And if some of my friends show up, that'd be cool. We'd just hang out. And if they showed up with scripts, then maybe we'd work on a show. And if that happened a few times, wouldn't that be a coincidence? And if a bunch of our friends showed up a few weeks later and we did a show for them, wouldn't that just blow your mind? And if they tried to stop the show, I could honestly respond, "What show? I'm just hanging out with my friends. Is hanging out with my friends now against the rules?"
Oh, there are some hilarious videos on Prop 8 on funnyordie.com. Check my favorite out here.
I didn't do a whole lot today. I feel like I've frozen some people out of my life lately because I simply can't deal with them right now. I'm not sure if they blame me or if they even notice. I'm not sure that I care, regardless.
I'm going to be doing a coincidental theatre version of Frozen in January. My cast will be Hannah Jacobs (Agnetha), Charlie Wright (Ralph), and Kathy Newman (Nancy). They've all agreed to go on with the show and with my new concept of "Coincidental Theatre." Because there have been a large number of problems with the second stage, student run productions of AHA, I have decided to do something more in line with my ideals. I will reserve a room on campus for a private function, and I will show up there. And if some of my friends show up, that'd be cool. We'd just hang out. And if they showed up with scripts, then maybe we'd work on a show. And if that happened a few times, wouldn't that be a coincidence? And if a bunch of our friends showed up a few weeks later and we did a show for them, wouldn't that just blow your mind? And if they tried to stop the show, I could honestly respond, "What show? I'm just hanging out with my friends. Is hanging out with my friends now against the rules?"
Oh, there are some hilarious videos on Prop 8 on funnyordie.com. Check my favorite out here.
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