Houston Day 229 - some thoughts about Melbourne

I woke up this morning thinking about what Melbourne's "word" is.  In Eat, Pray, Love there's a bit where the main character is in Italy discussing what word describes the flavor, the values and the goal of each city.  She and her friends conclude that New York's word is "work", and that one of the cities in Italy (I forget which) is best described by "pleasure", and another's word is "sex".  I think I'm remembering that right.  After I read that book I got talking to my friend Bry, who recommended the book to me, about what Melbourne's word is, and I can't remember if we came up with one or not, but now I've been away from it for a while I think Melbourne's word might be something about "difference" or "special" or "uniqueness".  I'm not that well-travelled compared to some people but more than any other place I've been, it seems that Melbourne is full of people and businesses all trying to be special in some way.  Fewer people than here in the U.S. are content to live in houses that from the outside look identical to their neighbours'; most Melburnians dress in their own special style, or at least try to; and each of the millions of cafes and restaurants and bars manages to be different from most of the rest.  All of those tiny theatre companies that never get any money are seeking to be unique.  Everyone's trying to develop their own one-of-a-kind flavor and add it to the city's melting-pot.  So there's a certain amount of self-consciousness about that, but it also means it's an incredibly creative place to live.  Am I right about that? Or am I romanticizing Melbourne now I'm away from it?
I haven't got a sense yet of what Houston's word is.  Other than "hot".  Yesterday was so warm (although apparently about ten degrees cooler than L.A.) I'm worried that winter is over already and we're slowly inching our way toward a boiling-hot spring.
We dropped Lex and Monica and baby Chase off at the airport yesterday, with their six or seven large pieces of luggage.  Travelling with a child is not something I'm going to sign up to anytime soon.  But it's been so nice to see them.  And now it's back to work: I'm getting new headshots taken today, which should be fun although I'm a little nervous, Lucas is back at work today and tomorrow (Saturday) he's helping me set up my home office.  2012 is underway.

Lucas assisting Chase in his exploration of our backyard

To see all my photos from December, check out this link.

Houston Day 224 - Hello again!

Hey blog readers, bet you've missed me.  December is over, and whilst it was great, I'm definitely not planning on repeating that little stunt of hyper-busy-ness.  This year my New Year's Resolution is to give up complaining, and a larger goal is to develop a rhythm of work that allows me to 1) perform 2) get all the other stuff, like admin, audition hunting, play-reading & -writing, that allows me to perform, done and 3) see Lucas and also relax.  So as a step toward that, Saturday is the Home Office Setup Day.
We got back from Christmas in Idaho yesterday, and that journey was really good practice in exercising my New Year's Resolution :) We were both hungover from an excellent birthday/NYE celebration which involved many cocktails and crashing on Dave & Shannon's air mattress.
It's been a big year, culminating in a big month....we're both tired on a very deep level, and a little bit clingy and sentimental.  I have a couple of times in the last week cried for no reason.  It was so good to get home and sleep in today.  We went to pick up Lex & Monica from the airport (yay, more Aussie visitors - and they came bearing Tim Tams!!!) and on the way Lucas took me to one of his favourite lunch spots near his work.
Tomorrow I have my first voiceover audition at my new agent's.  A little unsure of how it's going to work - apparently they have a recording studio there but my studio experience is limited, plus I don't know if there's a technician or if I have to run everything myself.  Useful to find out though! First time for everything!

Houston Day 203 - backstage again

Hey blogworld, sorry it's been ages.  Am psycho busy with Rudolph and Sound of Music (nineteen days straight of shows, with an average of 1.7 shows a day), and Mum's here so I'm hanging out with her in most of my free time.
Mum being here means we've done some touristy things we haven't done yet, like going to the Natural History Museum and the Johnson Space Center (NASA).  The history museum has an exhibit on at the moment about the Civil War.  I learned all kinds of things about it which I didn't know before, and most of which I've forgotten since.  But it made me engage with some of the issues...I mean, I know that slavery is awful, but I think having African-American friends has made it real to me how strange and unthinkable it is that that people group was systematically dehumanised and brutalised, based on a worldview that somehow made that ok...and the economic pressures helped too...  and I know that economic pressures are making slaves of people right now...I don't really know what to do with that.  I guess as someone who is comparatively pretty wealthy, I can use my dollar as my vote.  I'm gonna research more about that.
There was a lot of info in the Civil War exhibit about medicine in the field; more people died from illness in the field hospitals than on the battle field.

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[Mono Chant, Morning Hymn, Alleluia]

[costume change]

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Ok, I'm back.  So at the Museum they had a Civil War amputation kit - a small saw, and different sizes of scissors and knives.  If you got shot in the Civil War you either got left to die or you got whatever limb it was amputated.  Cheery.

Going to NASA absolutely blew my mind.  I was looking at objects that had left this world.  They had a big shuttle, plus spacesuits, and capsules that the astronauts pretty much put on like a large costume and got sent out into space.  One spacesuit was dirty, because of all the dust ON THE MOON.  We got to see the Mission Control Room from the sixties.  The computers in that room? One megabyte large.  No calculators.  People were floating out there in space in lethal conditions with two digital pictures' worth of memory as their support system.  The rest was sheer brainpower.  We sent people to space on ONE MEGABYTE!!!! I don't leave home without Google Maps!!! It's amazing what we can achieve with the right political pressures.

So that's about all right now.  I'm getting more and more unpleasant to be around - way too busy and stressed - will never try to do two shows at once again.  Am feeling very strange about Christmas coming up.  Actually more than anything I'm going to miss Boxing Day shopping with my sisters.  It won't be Christmas without Claire running in the Myer door at 7am mocking the people who fight over the cheap wrapping paper, and then giving in to her inner bargain-hunter and buying the cheap wrapping paper for herself.

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[Lonely Goatherd coming through speaker in our dressing room, Mother Abbess singing along]

[apply lipstick for party scene]

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Houston Day 188 - backstage at Sound of Music

I'm in the nunnery (the female chorus dressing room) sitting on the floor against the mirror.  Three nuns are watching tv shows on their laptops, one is underlining something in a book, another appears to be getting computer advice from a younger postulant, one is skyping her husband, one is fixing her hair, another is reading, and the last is searching through her stuff for something.  And I just skyped Jenn & Drew in Australia! Yay, thanks guys.
Janet leaves tomorrow.  It's been so lovely having her here.  Australia feels closer than it used to.  I'm feeling remarkably well-adjusted and at home at the moment - I think if Janet had come a few months ago it would have been a very different story.  I have enough to do that challenges and stimulates and fulfills me, and a variety of friends - it's not the same as in Melbourne - of course you don't build the depth and breadth of friendship in six months that you do in seven and a half years - but I'm so enjoying getting to know everyone here.  And I accept that Houston's not the world's most liveable city, or even in the top three or wherever Melbourne is, but it's got things that Melbourne doesn't, and above all I'm willing to forgive its shortcomings because I feel at home here now.

Houston Day 187 - Happy Thanksgiving!

....and it was indeed all it's cracked up to be.  Woke up to find Janet watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and the three of us spent the morning alternating between laughing and yelling (and, I confess, dancing) in front of the tv, and cooking up a storm.  Janet had also discovered a Thanksgiving playlist on the NPR website, so we cooked to that music, which was mostly just songs about food....including a rap song somewhat bizarrely  all about red beans and rice, and a lovely duet between Louis Armstrong and someone else entitled "All That Meat (and No Potatoes)".

Janet & Lucas choosing beer

The day before, however, involved a very stressful trip to the supermarket to buy all we needed to host the big feast.  The layout of the 11th St Kroger is still not intuitive to me, and there were some pretty frustrating traffic jams, particularly around the baking aisle.  Also, the store had completely run out of pumpkin, so Lucas had to make his pumpkin pie from a tin.

the veggies looked great before I actually cooked them

Like everyone who's hosting their first big meal, I called my mum a couple of times for cooking advice....felt like some sort of rite of passage.  And whilst I enjoyed preparing roast vegetables a la Sue, I screwed them up a bit and they came out burnt and chewy.  But thanks for helping me while you were travelling Mum!

I also got advice from my dad on how to make a good sauce to go with fruit salad.  Fruit salad is apparently a requirement of Bekah's Thanksgiving, and it made me very happy to hear her say "you've totally made my Thanksgiving with this fruit salad".  I've never really enjoyed playing hostess, particularly not when it involves copious amounts of cooking, but I had a great time yesterday! It helped that everyone contributed something, so Bekah made the turkey (well, she cooked it, she didn't make it; that would be strange).  Janet bought us some electric beaters and made a pav for a touch of Australiana...it was great, and went very well with Dad's raspberry sauce!

Janet's pavlova

Christine from Exxon came over too, bearing her family recipe of pumpkin ice cream pie, and Maggie stopped by between other parties and packing for her holiday to bring pecan pie.  The big football games were on, but unless I concentrate really hard on following the game I don't actually have any idea what's going on in American football, beyond the fact that big men in tight pants are rolling around on the ground together.

Maggie, Christine, Nick & Bekah

At last, at last (around 3pm), it was time to eat.  We ran into a little road block when we discovered that we didn't have a good carving knife and no-one really knew how to carve a turkey, but finally we sat down to a feast we could all be proud of! It was a very celebratory day.  I loved it.

Bekah attempting to carve

Maggie helping out

Now I am sitting in a quiet house eating leftover pecan pie for breakfast.  I am very thankful for old friends and new friends, and lovely food, and a lovely house with which to share hospitality.  I am grateful for my family on the other end of the phone, and for every second that I get to feel like I'm at home in this new country.

the end result - a delicious feast!

Houston Day 185 - signing up to be a mercenary

In between hosting Janet, who's visiting from Melbourne (yay!), Sound of Music rehearsals (I'm backstage now), and Rudolph shows (feel should add something in parentheses....um....it's going well), I'm supposed to be wading through the pile of paperwork and instructions my new agent gave me.
I have a sum total of a half-day's experience in screen work, so right now I'm just looking at "we need a certain type of body on camera" work, which sometimes might include specific skill sets.  You never know when a tv show or movie or commercial will require someone exactly five foot seven who looks Asian and plays classical guitar.  So this means I have to answer long long surveys about my looks and my skills, once for the agent and once for each of the four online casting databases I'm signing up for.  And here are the questions I am asking myself as I answer their questions:
Eternally damnable questions such as what to include...I used to think there was this magic line between professional and amateur, but there's not. I do include my last show in Australia, "Scenes from an Everyday Affair" in my list of professional accomplishments, because I flatter myself that it wasn't just for fun that I rolled around an intimate cabaret venue in my underwear.  Wait, does it make it more sordid if money was involved...? And do you want to know how much money was involved? $5, plus reimbursements for the props I bought.  That's right.
Yet more questions:
1.  Do I tick "wind instrument" if I've already ticked "flute"? Will that mislead casting directors into thinking I play another wind instrument?...coz it would just make me feel better to tick more boxes...
2.  Do casting directors seriously open this online database looking for someone with "whistling skills" as their defining characteristic?
3.  Who or what is "rappelling"?
4.  Why can't my secondary interests be more employable? i.e., why is Latin not listed in the foreign languages?
5.  My only TV experience is with the ABC, but I can't write ABC coz there's an American ABC...so it's the Australian Broadcasting....Company? Corporation? Canoe? No, wait, canoeing is in the "athletic skills" section...
6.  Resume comments section...presumably for me to comment, not the readers...."wow, i seem to have done lots of things that class as "live entertainment"" seems a little inane, so maybe I'll leave that blank.
7.  Who the hell knows their hat size?

...more adventures in the world of my career.  But I smile as I quietly grumble, because I have an agent I like, and more theatre projects and friends in this world than I could possibly have time for.  And also because they're singing "The Lonely Goatherd" right now, and you can't possibly be grumpy about that.

Houston Day 179 - more travels through space and time

Lily Tomlin's character (whose name I forget): Mr Markovski, have you ever travelled through space and time?
Albert: Yes.  No.  Time, not space.  Actually I have no idea what you're talking about.

I <3 Huckabees

Today was a little journey back in time.  I travelled back to the phase of a few months ago, when I was easily confused by all the bright lights, foreign accents, excess of choices on offer and unwritten rules of stores here in Houston.  The United States Postal Service can now join CostCo on the list of unlikely places that have reduced Amy to tears.
When I was young and naive, I thought that things like non-western toilets would be the hardest part of travel.  No.  Squatting near the ground to pee is nothing compared to not understanding instructions, or even worse, the instructions being assumed rather than explicitly given.  This is exactly what happened when I went to Japan and had no trouble with the non-western toilets, but enormous trouble with the western-style toilets with so many buttons, options and things that needed me to understand the instructions.
After breaking the rules at the post office (and wrapping up a package in a manner not inconsistent with a physical comedy sketch), I then proceeded to Bed, Bath & Beyond to purchase bedding for the guests who are staying with us over the next couple of months.  Still distracted by the Great Post Office Fiasco of 2011*, I nearly ran someone over in the parking lot, and then spent waaaay too much time contemplating the aesthetic, financial and allergenic ramifications of setting up the guest bed.  It's been a while since we went shopping for homewares, and I forgot how easily stressed out I am by it! However, I am pleased with the result!
So, Janet, Mum, Lex & Monica, welcome to our home! Come and enjoy your guest bed (not all at the same time, please).  And new Houstonian friends who I now know are now reading my blog, you are welcome to crash anytime.

*hyperbole used for effect