Realzing I can improvise a bit better than The Cowboys
Thought For The Day: Commitments should start today, not tomorrow.
Cowboys 20, Seahawks 21
The Cowboys Game was nerve wracking, gut wrenching, and most of all heart breaking. They came this close to winning their first playoff game since I was in elementary school. For all the flak I’m sure Tony Romo is going to catch for what happened, I bear no ill-will towards him. I’m sure he did his best, and I’m certain that he had to be anxious beyond words when pulling down the snap for the game winning field goal. You can say that he’s a professional and he screwed up and that’s not acceptable, which is granted, but on the other hand he did a lot to keep the ‘Boys in that game, and were it not for one or two calls, catches, or bounces, he might well have succeeded in leading them to victory. As frustrating as the botched snap was, I’m much more forgiving of that than I am of any of Drew Bledsoe’s numerous fourth quarter game-killing interceptions.
Romo’s a good guy. We’re lucky to have him on the team, and I really believe he can be the “quarterback of the future” anointing oil or not. I’m sure he must be down in the dumps after what happened; it’s a terrible thing to have to go into the off-season with. However, I have high hopes for the team next year with him gun-slinging for us. I very much hope that Parcells comes back next year to take one more shot at glory. I know he’s tired, but we’re so close, and I really think that a new coach with a new system would hurt the team a great deal at this point. God help me, I even hope that Owens comes back. Seattle has certainly shot up my NFL hate-list, although not more so than the referees in that game. I’m rarely one to place much blame on the refs, but what in the hell were they watching? The defensive holding calls were total B.S. They negated a big Cowboys’ gain with an officials; timeout to reset the clock. I cannot say with certainty that Jason Witten reached the first down at the end of the game, but I can say that there was not indisputable evidence to overturn the call. Make no mistake, The Cowboys shot themselves in the foot that game, but the zebras were kind enough to load up a few extra bullets. I hope those officials get sacked (no pun intended) and end up reffing high school games where the level of play matches the level of their officiating. All-in-all, a disappointing end to what was a good, but could have been great season.
Visiting Improv and Growing Up
I went to Country Day today to drop in on the Improv rehearsal. I have to say, it was very strange to walk back onto that campus. There’s a most peculiar feeling when you step foot at a school you used to go to every single day, but haven’t seen in over a year and haven’t attended for two. It’s akin to picking up a journal that you once wrote in daily, but had long since thrown in the bottom of drawer, opening it up and leafing through the pages. It’s simultaneously familiar and strange, like falling lightly into a dream and embracing a relative who passed on years ago. Oddly enough, it still feels like my school, I still experience that sense of belonging. While it’s a bit awkward coming back after having been away so long, I still feel comfortable walking through the campus with impunity. I exhausted myself on those fields, I rattled my brain in those classrooms, I spent many a late night rehearsing in that theatre, and lived to tell the tale. I suppose I feel like I earned it.
Paradoxically, in some ways it feels like just yesterday I was walking through those halls as a student, and in others it feels like a lifetime ago. The little note cards the cast of the musical wrote my senior year are still taped to the door, the theatre still carries the distinct odor of a quarter-century’s worth of paint, costumes, and kids, and my name is still etched on a little plaque in the corner, yet there’s a new bench here, a new sign there, a good portion of the teachers with whom I studied are gone, and I don’t know the names of half the kids in the troupe this year. The passage of time is a strange, scary thing.
Suffice it to say, working with this year’s troupe is the most fun I have had in a good long time. I didn’t realize how much I miss doing this kind of stuff. Steve was surprised to see me, and greeted me with a hug. Half the troupe seemed to recognize me and the other half probably assumed I was somebody’s ride. Other Improv Alumni Brett M. and Michael A. showed up as well, which was nice, not only because they bridged the gap between my time in Improv, and the current troupe, but because it was nice to see those two guys. The whole shebang started off with a bit similar to four-headed answer man that I’d never done before; it was pretty funny. We then burst into some three character scenes.
I have to say, the troupe Steve has lined up this year are very talented and more importantly very funny. I’m sure it didn’t hurt having Michael and Brett, and to a lesser extent yours truly to play off of, but they more than held their own, and I was very impressed as many of them are freshmen and sophomores. I don’t think I could claim to be half as good as they were when I started doing Improv. We brought back “Yazoo City” when by some manner of divine intervention I received the character description of “The Pride of Yazoo City” from the many slips of paper to be randomly picked out of Mr. Celleryhead. I think we put on a very funny sketch. We also did a hilarious one about a “waitressing championship” and we even did an all alumni-sketch which included some inspired deaf-singing from the three of us. I still can’t get over how good this year’s troupe was though. They really impressed me. We closed of with a game called snapshot where they take a random line from a book, and they have to tell a story in three “snapshots” (poses) while we try to guess what they are. The guesses are often funnier than the correct answer. We also did a bit of “What’s My Line” including a particularly funny sketch with Brett M. and Tuggey, which included the description of a little girl seeing a butterfly and woefully lamenting to it that, “you’re gonna make me lonesome when you go.” It was glorious. We finished up with a bit of “Feel A Song Coming On” featuring the chorus of “Boys and Girls/Come in twos/Looking for/Some Happy Juice,” and closed with a set of conducted sound. I really had a great time, and I think I need to talk to Brett about getting something started in New York.
After that it was a pretty quiet night at home. I watched Animation Domination with Mom and Brat. Brat and I cleared out the freezer of frost so it would close properly. Dad’s going on a business trip tomorrow so it was our last complete family dinner for a while. Mom baked some cookies for dessert, and here I am. Like I said, quiet night at home. So I haven’t mentioned it, but my New Years Resolutions are to 1. take better advantage of the cultural opportunities afforded one living in New York City and 2. to write in this journal every day or at least as often as possible, even if it’s just a brief entry. We’ll see if they pan out.
Cowboys 20, Seahawks 21
The Cowboys Game was nerve wracking, gut wrenching, and most of all heart breaking. They came this close to winning their first playoff game since I was in elementary school. For all the flak I’m sure Tony Romo is going to catch for what happened, I bear no ill-will towards him. I’m sure he did his best, and I’m certain that he had to be anxious beyond words when pulling down the snap for the game winning field goal. You can say that he’s a professional and he screwed up and that’s not acceptable, which is granted, but on the other hand he did a lot to keep the ‘Boys in that game, and were it not for one or two calls, catches, or bounces, he might well have succeeded in leading them to victory. As frustrating as the botched snap was, I’m much more forgiving of that than I am of any of Drew Bledsoe’s numerous fourth quarter game-killing interceptions.
Romo’s a good guy. We’re lucky to have him on the team, and I really believe he can be the “quarterback of the future” anointing oil or not. I’m sure he must be down in the dumps after what happened; it’s a terrible thing to have to go into the off-season with. However, I have high hopes for the team next year with him gun-slinging for us. I very much hope that Parcells comes back next year to take one more shot at glory. I know he’s tired, but we’re so close, and I really think that a new coach with a new system would hurt the team a great deal at this point. God help me, I even hope that Owens comes back. Seattle has certainly shot up my NFL hate-list, although not more so than the referees in that game. I’m rarely one to place much blame on the refs, but what in the hell were they watching? The defensive holding calls were total B.S. They negated a big Cowboys’ gain with an officials; timeout to reset the clock. I cannot say with certainty that Jason Witten reached the first down at the end of the game, but I can say that there was not indisputable evidence to overturn the call. Make no mistake, The Cowboys shot themselves in the foot that game, but the zebras were kind enough to load up a few extra bullets. I hope those officials get sacked (no pun intended) and end up reffing high school games where the level of play matches the level of their officiating. All-in-all, a disappointing end to what was a good, but could have been great season.
Visiting Improv and Growing Up
I went to Country Day today to drop in on the Improv rehearsal. I have to say, it was very strange to walk back onto that campus. There’s a most peculiar feeling when you step foot at a school you used to go to every single day, but haven’t seen in over a year and haven’t attended for two. It’s akin to picking up a journal that you once wrote in daily, but had long since thrown in the bottom of drawer, opening it up and leafing through the pages. It’s simultaneously familiar and strange, like falling lightly into a dream and embracing a relative who passed on years ago. Oddly enough, it still feels like my school, I still experience that sense of belonging. While it’s a bit awkward coming back after having been away so long, I still feel comfortable walking through the campus with impunity. I exhausted myself on those fields, I rattled my brain in those classrooms, I spent many a late night rehearsing in that theatre, and lived to tell the tale. I suppose I feel like I earned it.
Paradoxically, in some ways it feels like just yesterday I was walking through those halls as a student, and in others it feels like a lifetime ago. The little note cards the cast of the musical wrote my senior year are still taped to the door, the theatre still carries the distinct odor of a quarter-century’s worth of paint, costumes, and kids, and my name is still etched on a little plaque in the corner, yet there’s a new bench here, a new sign there, a good portion of the teachers with whom I studied are gone, and I don’t know the names of half the kids in the troupe this year. The passage of time is a strange, scary thing.
Suffice it to say, working with this year’s troupe is the most fun I have had in a good long time. I didn’t realize how much I miss doing this kind of stuff. Steve was surprised to see me, and greeted me with a hug. Half the troupe seemed to recognize me and the other half probably assumed I was somebody’s ride. Other Improv Alumni Brett M. and Michael A. showed up as well, which was nice, not only because they bridged the gap between my time in Improv, and the current troupe, but because it was nice to see those two guys. The whole shebang started off with a bit similar to four-headed answer man that I’d never done before; it was pretty funny. We then burst into some three character scenes.
I have to say, the troupe Steve has lined up this year are very talented and more importantly very funny. I’m sure it didn’t hurt having Michael and Brett, and to a lesser extent yours truly to play off of, but they more than held their own, and I was very impressed as many of them are freshmen and sophomores. I don’t think I could claim to be half as good as they were when I started doing Improv. We brought back “Yazoo City” when by some manner of divine intervention I received the character description of “The Pride of Yazoo City” from the many slips of paper to be randomly picked out of Mr. Celleryhead. I think we put on a very funny sketch. We also did a hilarious one about a “waitressing championship” and we even did an all alumni-sketch which included some inspired deaf-singing from the three of us. I still can’t get over how good this year’s troupe was though. They really impressed me. We closed of with a game called snapshot where they take a random line from a book, and they have to tell a story in three “snapshots” (poses) while we try to guess what they are. The guesses are often funnier than the correct answer. We also did a bit of “What’s My Line” including a particularly funny sketch with Brett M. and Tuggey, which included the description of a little girl seeing a butterfly and woefully lamenting to it that, “you’re gonna make me lonesome when you go.” It was glorious. We finished up with a bit of “Feel A Song Coming On” featuring the chorus of “Boys and Girls/Come in twos/Looking for/Some Happy Juice,” and closed with a set of conducted sound. I really had a great time, and I think I need to talk to Brett about getting something started in New York.
After that it was a pretty quiet night at home. I watched Animation Domination with Mom and Brat. Brat and I cleared out the freezer of frost so it would close properly. Dad’s going on a business trip tomorrow so it was our last complete family dinner for a while. Mom baked some cookies for dessert, and here I am. Like I said, quiet night at home. So I haven’t mentioned it, but my New Years Resolutions are to 1. take better advantage of the cultural opportunities afforded one living in New York City and 2. to write in this journal every day or at least as often as possible, even if it’s just a brief entry. We’ll see if they pan out.