I just spent 45 minutes driving around town at 1:30 in the morning looking for specially formulated cat food designed for indoor cats, ages 7 and over, with added hairball care.
Oh, modern life.
A note about lighting and sets: All scenes should end with a slow fade to black, except the last one. The sets can be very basic, often requiring nothing but some blocks to sit on. The scenes in the houses of Dan, John, and Julia could ideally have some real chairs, but these could be dispensed with in the name of simplicity if deemed necessary. The scenes outside should somehow be indicated as such, preferably with lighting because it’s easy and, if done correctly, effective. Atmospheric lighting, gobos to cast shadows of trees, or a combination of both could be used to achieve this.
Lights up on Dan, talking on the phone
Dan: So anyway if you didn’t have any plans, I was thinking maybe we’d go out on Friday and take in the Apocalypse. pause Yea, I know pause Well of course it freaks me out a little pause Because there’s no use in worrying. I mean, there’s nothing we can do. pause We’ll deal with that when we have to. Everyone else will, too, it’s not like we’re suffering some great misfortune here. laughing It’s not like it’s the end of the world pause OK, maybe that wasn’t funny… pause hey, come on, lighten up pause I do realize it’s serious, but what good is freaking out going to do? pause OK, that’s more like it. Just calm down. How’ve you been spending your days? pause Dead panic? That doesn’t sound like much fun… pause Look, we’ve all only got a few days left, we may as well enjoy them. pause Isn’t there something you’ve always wanted to do before you died? pause Yea, so there. Now’s your last chance pause I don’t know, I find it kind of liberating, exhilarating. I freaked out a little at first, but then I thought about it, and its really quite an opportunity. I mean, how locked into thinking about the future are we? It’s always about having as much fun as you can manage while making sure things will be the same afterwards, but now we don’t have to worry about it. So instead of thinking “Oh this is great, but it’s going to suck to go back to work on Monday” I’m just going for it. I’ve started smoking, occasionally, staying up until 4 in the morning just messing around with John, going out and driving really fast. I always wanted to go parachuting, so John and I went base jumping a couple days ago. The thought always used to scare the crap out of me, I was always afraid something would go wrong and I’d fall several hundred feet and land on some sharp rocks or something. But now, I mean, whatever, the only difference it makes is a few days. slightly longer pause I suppose it is a kind of nihilism, but it seems justified, doesn’t it? pause Well I’m not looking for my death, only trying to make the most out of the rest of my life pause See that’s what I’m talking about. You can’t be worrying so much. The possibilities in front of you are endless! You should be reveling in this pause Yea, you always were more practical that I was. pause Listen, Julia, all I’m just suggesting it might help you relax. If you want to stay freaked out instead, maybe that’s how you have to end things. We’re all trying to find some peace. It’s a scary thing, don’t think I don’t think so. pause OK, well, if you want to talk or get out of the house you know how to find me pause And think about what you’re going to do on Friday. I thought it might be nice to get out of the city, go up to the hills and watch for the end… pause Oh, I don’t know, me and you and John, unless you can think of someone else you want to bring along. We’ve known each other so long, it just seems fitting to end it together. And if you’ve been cooped up in your house I think it might really do you some good. pause Yea but that’s kind of the point, to go out and face it head on. If nothing else it should be exhilarating, right? To stare at the end of everything hurtling towards you at 80,000 miles an hour. pause Yes, and frightening, too, but maybe cathartic? short pause But if nothing else it’s better than spending your last hours alone. So what do you say? short pause All right, we’ll do it. Feel better, Julia.
lights down
Lollapalooza! What a great way to spend a long weekend. Besides being hot as all fuck, it was a great time. Sergei, Matt, Kangway and I saw all manner of great bands. I was particularly happy to see The Killers, Weezer, Dashboard Confessional, Liz Phair, The Arcade Fire, Tegan and Sarah (except Sarah got heatstroke halfway through the set), and the list goes on. The best part is probably that no matter how much of a pansy I feel like for liking some of those artists (Liz Phair?! Dashboard Confessional?!?) there were always at least several thousand other people there who were of a similar mind.
One of the nicest parts was that if you really wanted to see a band, and were willing to wait an hour, you could be quite close to the stage. Sergei and I waited around for an hour before The Killers and Weezer, and both times were no more than 12 or 15 people from the front. Which wasn’t bad at all. We have some ridiculous pictures of Rivers Cuomo; Weezer had a good stage show. And mostly, it’s just pretty awesome to be standing 25 feet from the band while there are about 30,000 people (no joke) behind you. There were a *lot* of people there.
So all went well, and I think we’re quite happy with ourselves for going. We did some shopping today, I somehow got caught up in it and spent $80 on two articles of clothing. I’m normally much more reserved in the way I spend money on clothes, in that I don’t. I just wear the same stuff I’ve always had, and occasionally get a pair of jeans that are identical to the ones I’ve already for for $25 at Kohls. It’s not so much that I care about the money, and more that I really just can’t be bothered. Maybe that will change, except now I suddenly find myself somewhat more concerned about spending $50 on a sweatshirt and thinking its a good deal because it was listed origianlly at $108. The cursed numbers game.
But, anyway. Now that I have returned from sunny, sunny Chicago, however, it’s time to get down to business. For now, sleep; for tomorrow, work; for tomorrow night, a movie and probably some more work. I leave for New Jersey Saturday, and there is much to be done before then. Summer is nearly at an end, and I find this *extremely* distressing.
Coming home today, on the way to the airport, we were unfortunate enough to be in a car accident. I’ve never been in a wreck before, save when Annie rear ended someone at a stoplight but that was quite minor. There is a very distinct experience to it, though - I was immediately reminded of being in the car with Annie after it happened. There’s something about the sound, and how it’s such a jarring collision. Somehow I think I always expect it to be more of a crunch than a bang, and not be so fast. It reminds me of clenching my teeth too quickly. I can feel the whole thing in my jaw. The way the sound resonates. I can’t get over that sound.
I have overinvolved myself in things, and all the time I’ve spent writing recently has been devoted to other things. Namely, a stud prod play, and now I need to write a script for a video project. But most of my time this summer has been spent working, doing CUWiN stuff, and trying to relax. The latter of which I have been extremely successful at lately, as here at the Jersey shore there have been few distractions. I put up a new WRFU website earlier in the week, but other than that I’ve done next to nothing. Zuke and Kangway and I have been swimming a couple times a day and watching a lot of movies. The weather’s been fantastic, save yesterday when it rained. I still managed to skimboard some, though. The seas are a little rougher today from the storm, which might prove fun this afternoon. The waves have been calm this week.
And that is a recap of the past month, essentially. Lollapalooza tickets came, and we bought train tickets last night, so we’re all set to do that later in the month. It’s going to be great.
Currently we’re beating the heat by lounging around and watching recasts of the Live 8 concerts on VH1. Not terribly exciting, but this week is all about not exerting myself.
Upon returning to Illinois I will be very ready to enjoy my summer even more thoroughly. Since I’m done writing that play, which was proving a stressful activity, I can now fully devote myself to work, CUWiN, free speech video, Books to Prisoners, and hard-core chillin’ like a villain. Speaking of CUWiN, I might actually start getting paid for doing the stuff I would do anyway, which is nice, and I might get to travel some at their expense. To Africa, apparently, but who knows what’ll come of that. Still, exciting.
Due to my persistent failure to cope with bandwidth issues, this site has been down for the past week or so. My e-mail still worked, so I was too lazy to actually resolve the problem, but maybe I’ll get around to it.
For the moment, however, I’m fleeing the state. I’m leaving a very busy Illinois for ten days on the Jersey shore where I can hopefully actually get some relaxation done. That and *maybe* a little bit of work. But only the fun stuff!