Since Kevin had spent a few days in Edinburgh before we got there, he already had a chance to go to some of the Fringe Festival shows …. In fact, I think he went to see this improv group from Texas two times already. So when we were [...]]]> Still Tuesday in Edinburgh …. .

Since Kevin had spent a few days in Edinburgh before we got there, he already had a chance to go to some of the Fringe Festival shows …. In fact, I think he went to see this improv group from Texas two times already. So when we were in Edinburgh for the day Kevin wanted us to see them too ….

Parallelogramophonograph – Improvised Plays from Austin, Texas

(The improvers pamphletting outside their venue)

Whereas my friend Nathan’s improv group does improv competitions and genres, Parallelogramophonograph does more long-form improv. Full, nearly play-length stories.

It’s pretty fun!

We could easily tell they’ve been working together for a long time.

I was reminded again how very much I love actors. We ran into the improv team (and their tech guy) just before the show – they were out on the Royal Mile pamphletting, trying to bring in more audience. Actors are all so charming …. Especially the ones that are *slightly* insecure. … Adorable. Seriously.

So the “play” they put on for us is all improvised, but they ask the audience for some kind of suggestion….. the team – 2 girls, 2 guys – had announced that their story that night would be darker, a murder mystery or similar….

So of course, the question they asked of the audience was for a happy memory. The winner: Playing in a field with my dog Friskers.

The play was very good – surprisingly well-structured for improv … along with several laugh-out-loud moments. It was Andrew’s first experience with improv. I’m really glad we stayed in the city to see it!

The “venue” was just one of the conference rooms that the Radisson Hotel rents out – with curtains, lights and chairs. If I had to guess, I’d say it held maybe …. 50 audience members. From what they told Kevin, it sounds like they would have to sell out all their shows just to break even. Not sure if that will happen for them, but what a fun experience nevertheless! So glad we went!

Found via The Happiest Mom

My default with no alarm is about 8.5 hours each night. Andrew’s is 5 or 6 hours each night.

Needless to say, he spends a lot of time awake, alone, watching movies in the living room.

But in the [...]]]> I think I’ve mentioned this before…. But Andrew doesn’t sleep as much as normal people.

My default with no alarm is about 8.5 hours each night. Andrew’s is 5 or 6 hours each night.

Needless to say, he spends a lot of time awake, alone, watching movies in the living room.

But in the last few weeks, Andrew has been using his sleepless nights to work! Like a crazy person!

He’ll work his ‘day job’ from about noon til about 10p, and then once everyone leaves completely reset one of the rooms to set up for his personal clients….. They arrive at about midnight, record til 5a or so. Then he has to RE-reset the room back.

He’ll come home and sleep for about 4 hours, then go do the same thing again!

But he loves it …. And I love that he’s such a hard worker…Always so proud of him.

A few weeks ago, he started a little bit earlier on a Friday night so I stopped by after work to get some photos of him in action ….

Luckily for me, Jenae loves to go down to the studio to help him. Which means I get to stay home and sleep, and he has assistance so he’s not there even longer!

recording a musical saw!

View the whole gallery here: Recording Charlyne and Miles

P.S. For those of you paying attention, that is Charlyne Yi – actress, artist and musician. You might recognize her from House MD or Paper Heart or Knocked Up.

I found a roll of film recently… I keep my to-be-developed film on a shelf near the front door with my to-be-read-next books. Somehow this roll of film from summer 2010 got lost in between the books and we just re-discovered it when we were getting the film from [...]]]> “last summer” as in 2010!

I found a roll of film recently… I keep my to-be-developed film on a shelf near the front door with my to-be-read-next books. Somehow this roll of film from summer 2010 got lost in between the books and we just re-discovered it when we were getting the film from Alaska and Scotland to be developed.

First of all: Special thanks to Andrew’s brother Daniel and Jenae for giving me the Holga for my birthday a couple years ago.

and special thanks to Andrew for always dropping off/picking up the film for me ….

Here are just a few highlights from that roll from last year….

Clearly I need a steadier hand, but that can be worked on….

From Katie and Joe’s wedding:

From visiting our friends Jamie and Zack in San Diego to snorkel with the sharks:

From our weekend away at the ACE Hotel Palm Springs:

I love experimenting with these toy cameras …. I just wish it wasn’t so darn expensive!!

(Happy 6th anniversary to my favorite person EVER!)

Anybody that knows me knows that I love music. It’s an obsession and it’s my life. I hate to not be listening to music, especially if I’m driving. I like that if I hear a song when I’m driving that in the future it will act as a [...]]]> {The following is journaling from Andrew}

Anybody that knows me knows that I love music. It’s an obsession and it’s my life. I hate to not be listening to music, especially if I’m driving. I like that if I hear a song when I’m driving that in the future it will act as a trigger for me to remember a certain part of the drive.

I was thrilled to be listening to Scottish radio programming. Just to hear how different it would be from American radio. Scotland has a ton of great bands, especially for a country so small. The few radio stations that we listened to turned out to be truly eclectic.

My first real day of driving was Sunday and I spent hours alone in the car driving and listening to Heartland FM!

Of all the stations we listened to, Heartland was the best!

I heard Scottish bands such as Idlewild and Teenage Fanclub.

The first time Amy and I turned the station on, they were playing American Roots music – Johnny Cash and some other American acts. Shortly after that was a classical program that played songs about weather. Later in the evening was a gospel music program. Just very eclectic.

Whenever we listened and it wasn’t a genre-oriented program it seemed like the most random music – from cheezy British pop to death metal to 80s new wave all in 15 minutes.

There was even a ‘Requests’ program where the DJ would spend 5 minutes talking and listing off songs that people had requested. He’d name a song and say that it was a brilliant choice, and 5 minutes later play a totally random song.

THEN interrupt the song for more talking and listing …. It was hilarious!

He spent a bit of time Saturday trying to come up with a last minute costume – buying white thrift store women’s jeans that were about 3 sizes too big and an Elvira-type wig. Yes, really.

His plan was to be Andrew W.K. [...]]]> Saturday night Andrew went to a costume-concert … Whatever that is.

He spent a bit of time Saturday trying to come up with a last minute costume – buying white thrift store women’s jeans that were about 3 sizes too big and an Elvira-type wig. Yes, really.

His plan was to be Andrew W.K. and wear all white … but that wig was just not going to work.

But luckily for Andrew he has a wife who can make a fake tacky belt buckle in about 5 minutes …. So instead, he went as Zak Bagans.

Of Ghost Adventures fame.

So instead of all white, Andrew went with all-black, an awful hair-style and tacky rings/belt buckle/watch

Zak Bagans has a very distinctive way of dressing…. but he’s not really famous enough for most people at the concert to know who Andrew was dressing as….

But it was still super fun

Hair all messily combed forward and sticking straight out front

Big cross tattoo that can be clearly seen under the edge of his t-shirt

In full costume…. with Jenae as Indiana Jones

Andrew’s got his aluminum foil bling as well as his video camera prop (and a name tag, just in case)

Not bad for put together about half an hour before he had to leave, huh?

(compare to Zak in the middle: )

What were YOU for Halloween?

We were TOTALLY overwhelmed

(listed in roughly the order we watched them)

The Fog – John Carpenter’s 1980 film about killer creatures that come in with the fog … It *could* be really creepy, [...]]]> You may have noticed, this year we watched SIGNIFICANTLY fewer scary movies than last year. Thank goodness.

We were TOTALLY overwhelmed

• 2008
• 2009
• 2010

(listed in roughly the order we watched them)

The Fog – John Carpenter’s 1980 film about killer creatures that come in with the fog … It *could* be really creepy, except the scenes when the fog is basically animated (not scary) and the creatures are pretty much just big rubber monsters.

Paranormal Activity 2 – Prequel to Paranormal Activity. I enjoyed this one, especially the way the story relates to and leads into Paranormal Activity. Looking forward to the 3rd movie too.

The Thing – John Carpenter’s film from 1982. About a monster that duplicates itself, with Kurt Russell as the hero. The climax was a bit … off. But the rest of the film was lovely and creepy.

Case 39 – Renee Zellweger and Bradley Cooper. Most of the movie is revealed in the trailer, which is a bit disappointing… And the ending part of the plot is full of holes … But the lead up to then is pretty creepy.

Scream 2 – I really enjoyed Scream, and I know that the first 3 Scream movies were designed as a trilogy. But this one felt like the weakest. Although Jerry O’Connell is in this one and I kind of love him.

Scream 3 – While not as good as Scream, I think this one is better than Scream 2. Take that however you will.

Funny Games – German film about a home invasion. Seriously creepy. Super super scary. Loved it. Also, I hear there’s an American remake.

It – I can imagine this book (by Stephen King) is probably good…. And the first half of this movie (actually a TV miniseries) is good. But the second half, when the grown-ups come back to kill It? Too ridiculous. The first half with a group of kids fighting It feels more like Goonies or Sandlot (with a supernatural killer), and it’s a bit endearing.

Scream 4 – Yea, um. Unless you LOVE the Scream franchise, feel free to skip this one.

The Walking Dead (season 1) - Zombie TV show. The second season is on the air now. I wasn’t totally sure how they’d make the basic zombie-movie premise into a whole TV series, but I kind of see now. The one thing that drives me crazy is how the female characters aren’t given any agency. They just sit on their hands in the corner while the men hack away at the zombies, or the doors, or whatever challenge they have to break through. We’ll still watch season 2 when it’s available, of course.

Wicked Little Things – About miner-accident-children zombies who every night for the last 150 years come out and kill for revenge. Just as ridiculous as it sounds.

[REC] – Spanish zombie movie, in the style of Paranormal Activity or Blair Witch (one of the characters is the cameraman). Really great movie. Also, it was remade in America as ‘Quarantine’

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer – 1980s movie about a serial killer. A little bit about how he kills, his relationship with a brother/sister. Sad and a bit creepy, but VERY good.

Mimic – Cockroach/Termite creature movie by Guillermo del Toro.

[REC]2 – sequel to [REC] (clearly). Takes place about an hour after the first one ends. It’s not just the same story w/ different characters (like so many sequels can be), but instead follows a SWAT team type group who head in to the original quarantine to try to get it under control. Same basic idea (same infection, same zombies) but the story unfolds differently.

Ghost Adventures – season 5… I can’t believe I actually like this reality show!

Deathwatch – World War 1 supernatural thriller starring Jamie Bell (who I just love).

Did  YOU watch any scary movies this month?

I did NOT make note of the Scary-Movie-Rules and lessons we learned through watching these … but our past Halloween posts have plenty, in case you’re worried.

But I also found this horror-movie-focused blog: Into Survival that includes reviews of movies, comparison of foreign-to-American remakes, and discussions of horror movie rules … Like How To Survive a Horror Movie: Fashion Tips for Ladies

Happy Halloween!!