we'll get there

016.

chicagobound09 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 01:04:08 +0000

Tsk tsk tsk. AT and I have really been slacking, so I apologize. I can’t believe I haven’t updated in 2 or 3 weeks. Shame on me! And so many Chicago-related things have happened! Oh my. Let’s get started.

I went to the drama competition in STL…unfortunately I did not place. There were only 13 of us competing and I only got to see 3 others plus a girl who I went to school with. The competition was small and fierce and I am definitely disappointed that I did not get any money out of it, but thats okay. I got some feedback from the judges and it will all help me in the long run.

The group of us unfortunately decided to not head up to Chicago for spring break this upcoming week. With the guys making their sudden trip to Miami and everyone working now more than ever to build up our banks for the trip up there, we decided that it would be somewhat of a fruitless trip. While a much needed get away for some of us that didn’t get to go away to Miami (aka ME), its alright. A week break from school is break enough. We’ve talked about doing some fun stuff next week around town so I’m sure we’ll make the most of it.

I applied this week for Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s Apprenticeship program for the 2009-2010 season. The program starts August 31st and runs through May. They pay minimum wage, which is absolutely fine for me. Money is better than no money. I applied for both the casting department and the literature department. I’m REALLY hoping to get into casting…it will give me a first hand look at the casting process at such an elite theatre and introduce me/get me in good with casting directors and directors plus meet some great actors. I can’t even imagine how many contacts I could get from this. Plus just having the name Steppenwolf on my resume would be amazing. PLUS it starts just weeks after we plan on moving in…so it seems like such a great fit. I should hear from them in the next 2 weeks…final interviews happen in April. Crossing fingers!!

I guess that’s all for now…I can’t believe we’re halfway through March already. Just about 4 months and we’ll be in CHICAGO. Yes.

i’m baaaack

amoderndayjohnwayne — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 03:49:39 +0000

ooookay, so “slacking” might have been an understatement, and I take 49% of the blame for our lack of contact with the few loyal fans of this blog (51% goes to Whitney…just because). For a while, I just didn’t have anything to report, but I’m thrilled to let you know that Nick and I had a successful vacation/jam session in Miami, Florida with our good friend and band mate, Hagen. It was short notice, but we made the long drive down a week or so ago, and stayed for about 3 days. It was awesome just to see Hagen again, and just as awesome to start playing some of the stuff we had been working on and have Hagen give input on guitar, as well as just overall song structure.

I think Nick and I often get into this very specific style of writing and I have full faith that Hagen is going to take our work and very politely tear it apart, re-arrange, add to it, and make it that much better. We’re really looking to get some good quality recordings done at this point. Our session with Andy Tanz never worked out, but we’re keeping our ears open. We’re honestly ready to get into the studio and record some basic demos, we just need to find where, when, and go with the least costly of our options. That might mean doing it ourselves, which is an idea that i’m very skeptical about, but I have faith that we could make it happen with all of our input and ideas.

I believe that’s all I have to update on right now, but I promise to make the distance between posts a bit shorter. Okay, back to Death to Smoochie and/or Taylor Swift. -AT

015.

chicagobound09 — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:04:47 +0000

Wow, we’ve certainly been slacking on updates but really there hasn’t been too terribly much going on in order to update everyone on! Last you heard from us AT was gushing on the Grammy’s and now I’m sitting here watching the Oscar’s and experiencing the same exact things. There are so many wonderful people at those awards that I admire so much for their talent (Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymore Hoffman, etc.) and it’s so interesting getting to look at it from an actor’s point of view and imagining myself there accepting an award, giving an award, or just getting to be around those talented people and that amazing experience. It’s supposed to be a ridiculously long process, though and the whole award night is hours and hours long. I don’t think I would mind, though. I think it would be absolutely incredible to receive an award for doing what you love. Amazing.

Speaking of doing what I love, I get the chance to go and compete for some money this upcoming weekend. I don’t remember if I mentioned it in here, but I’m sure I did. I have 2 monologues I’m working on and get to present and hopefully take home some money. Mom has agreed to go with me and watch so I’m glad I have someone there for support. Everyone else will be working away here in Cape. I’m really excited, though. I’ve never been so excited about 2 monologues before…and I think (and certainly hope) that will reflect in my performance.

The boys left for Miami yesterday evening to visit Hagen. Nick was in desperate need of getting out of Cape Girardeau and both he and AT missed Hagen incredibly so the only thing that made sense was for them to travel down and see him. They drove all night and arrived in Miami around 12:30 this afternoon. I got to talk to Nick tonight and they’re just loving sitting out by the pool with Hagen and drinking some beers and playing some music. He said they have already made progress in the few hours they were playing around and plan on getting up early tomorrow and working on music all day long. If they work even half as hard as he and AT did on their short stint in STL over winter break I’m sure they will make a lot of progress. I’m really excited for them. They leave early Wednesday morning and will be in in the wee hours of Thursday. I miss them already but am really excited they got to get away. (Well, and eternally jealous of course)

I splurged a little and bought an iPod Touch which I absolutely love! My CD player in my car just stopped playing CDs so the biggest push to get an iPod was for music in my car. Plus with being Chicago-bound…actually getting to take the eL or the bus and listen to music is appealing. PLUS all the amazing Apps! I got Urban Spoon which Sarah and I have been gushing over since it showed up on the Apple commercials. I was playing around with it today looking through the different Chicago neighborhoods…and I think it’s just going to be so much fun to play around with up there. I’m getting so excited.

A month until we’re in Chicago for neighborhood scoping adventures!!!!

amoderndayjohnwayne — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 05:17:29 +0000

I sat and watched the latter part of the 51st Grammy Awards tonight with Shedd, Carreras, and Whitney. I got me more than excited about writing music. As much as I’ll always claim that music is a constant in my life (which, in the long run, it is), I definitely hit these 1, 2, or even 3 week periods where I feel somewhat stagnant in my musical journey. I’m looking forward to this upcoming streak of musical excitement.

We made a phone call to Andy Tanz this evening about some recording possibilities. Andy is a friend of Shedd and Carreras from Perryville. Although I’ve never met him personally, I’ve seen him play and he’s an extremely talented musician and look forward to hopefully working with him. We’re looking to spend a day recording drum tracks, then bring those back here to the apartment and have Shedd do the rest of the recording (vocals, guitars, bass, etc.) It’s something I’m really really excited about, because we haven’t been able to really express what we’ve been working on or the direction that we’re heading in. This will be an awesome opportunity to let people know what we’re all about, and hopefully gain some fans.

Well, I’m going to go play Madden. That’s all I’ve done the past week, in case you wanted to know

014.

chicagobound09 — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 04:54:45 +0000

Not too much to update on here…I’m just image searching for my next tattoo…an owl that is going on my left hip. I came across this photo on Flickr and for some reason I feel like it completely sums up the feeling that my living situation will be in Chicago…in a completely positive way.

The photo is titled “Monday Night”. Ha.

013.

chicagobound09 — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:45:23 +0000

If you haven’t caught on already, my friends and I are big big music lovers. We love listening to music, going to concerts, sharing music with each other, and of course many of us (not including myself) are ridiculously musically talented and create music whenever they can.

Unfortunately, we live in a town right now that doesn’t have a lot of musical talent or opportunities for bands to get seen/play shows, etc. Even the St. Louis music scene is QUICKLY failing. Several years ago we had a lot of venue options. A lot of small places for local bands to play were available (Midwest Music Pit, Sally T’s, etc) then into the mediocre music places (The Creepy Crawl), to slightly bigger (Mississippi Nights), to even bigger (The Pageant) until you get into the amphitheaters (Riverport, Scott Trade Center, Family Arena). So many of the smaller/middle places no longer exist…pushing smaller bands (which we focus mostly on) out of the St. Louis area. I just couldn’t stand it anymore when AT told me the other day that our beloved Creepy Crawl will be no longer.

I have seen so many shows at the Creepy Crawl…before and after it relocated. I’ve seen bands from Ace Enders to Motion City Soundtrack to mewithoutYou to Emery to Action Action to The Spill Canvas on and on and on. Creepy will hold an especially unique place in my heart since it brought Nick and I together at the Spill Canvas show in November of 07. Without the Creepy I wouldn’t be friends with the people I am now. I wouldn’t have the boyfriend I have now. I might not even be Chicago Bound.

It’s just so disappointing, but also just one more thing to add to the list of “pros” about moving to Chicago. EVERYONE goes to Chicago. Chicago never gets skipped over. We can travel to Memphis right now to see bands but the Memphis crowds are AWFUL. We’re probably heading there in April to see Death Cab For Cutie, but we certainly hope they are better than the other shows we have seen there.

So, RIP STL Indie music scene. See you in Chicago.

012.

chicagobound09 — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:44:39 +0000

Happy Superbowl Sunday! (Yes, I did that just to connect with the masses…no I have no interest in nor plan on watching or partaking in any Superbowl activities).

This will be short and sweet. I’m spending my day monologue searching for a drama competition coming up at the end of this month. There is a 6 minute time limit to do 2 monologues: one comedic, one dramatic and one must be classic, one contemporary. I have to get the application in ASAP to guarantee myself a position. First place gets $2000 plus a trip to D.C. to compete for more ca$h. 2nd place gets $1500, and 3rd gets $750. All for doing 2 monologues. Awesome.

Of course that money will help out greatly with the trek to Chicago. I hope to get SOMETHING out of it. I don’t know. Basically anyone from 18-30 can audition, so that is a wide range of people.

Its strange, though…for the first time today I got this incredible urge to want to act again and get involved in something again. Twelfth Night completely drained me and my want to act. The experience was almost downright miserable. I was going through a terrible personal time and the show was just unenjoyable for the most part. I dreaded it. I hated feeling like that. Luckily some of my fellow actors felt the same. But, here I am, excited to go and find new material and take part in something myself. I feel really good about that feeling. Really, really good.

P.S. Had a good ole drunk time last night with the guys + friends. The guys played several Modern Day John Wayne songs and I got them on video…I’ll post the links here whenever I get them uploaded.

Go Cardinals!! (Only because I asked Nick who to cheer for today. Shrug.)

011.

chicagobound09 — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:59:06 +0000

The ice and snow is on its way out, thankfully. After some stolen ice-ridding advice from a friend we took a hammer to Sarah’s car this morning and it worked SO. WELL. Seriously. If you have several inches of ice on your car and you aren’t too scared to use it…take a hammer to your car. We got it cleared so fast. Getting her car out was a different story, but thankfully the guys who do maintenance on our apartment complex were around and helped her push it out. We’re free! (It is a really exhilarating feeling.) Tomorrow is supposed to be a high of 46*, so I’m hoping it will knock out a lot of the ice/snow that is still on our horrible roads. Then Tuesday we’re in for another snow storm. As long as its not ice, I don’t care! (I slipped and fell and bruised my ass pretty terribly today. Ice and I have officially ended things.)

My ice accident happened as Sarah and I were headed to Broadway Books and Roasting Co., a little used books/coffee shop in our “historic downtown”. I wanted to check out the books and the music/open mic night situation for the guys. Hopefully they can get in there soon and start playing. I’m really excited to see their music live for people other than me and Nick Shedd. I also picked up a few classics while I was there..just a little Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, and Six Great Modern Plays (including Tennesee Williams and Ibsen).

I have also been contemplating future careers for myself once we are in Chicago. I don’t know how practical or how successful I will be in theatre or how much I will like it. I do love acting and if I can make a career out of it, then by all means I will. But I’d like to have a back up plan as well. I was looking into Columbia College’s Master programs, and they offer a really great one in the field of Writing. (http://www.colum.edu/Academics/Graduate_Study/Creative_Writing/index.php) I have the option of getting a degree in Creative Writing as well as getting a degree in teaching writing at the college level. I really enjoy writing and if I can be successful in it I think I’d really like doing so. The application requires 30 pages of equal amounts of fiction and prose (which I definitely don’t have).

So, in order to determine whether or not this is a temporary fling of an idea I have decided to most certainly wait until this time next year to apply. I want to get my feet wet in Chicago living as well as auditioning and everything theatre before I consider getting back into school. Plus, that will give me a year to work on writing and compiling my needed 30 pages of literature in order to apply.

I have created another blog which I will link on here and you can keep up with if you are interested. It’ll just be a place to organize my thoughts and keep my writings all together. I have mostly written in free verse poetry before, so I’ll be working a lot more on prose and fiction. My writings have all but been published on my Myspace blog for the past 3 years and I have gone through and taken my best/favorite writings from there and posted them on that new blog. Hopefully I’ll stick with it and hopefully will be creating a lot of great things.

http://cocktailpoliticsobscuredetails.wordpress.com

there’s ice here, too! crazy!

amoderndayjohnwayne — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:34:19 +0000

yeah it’s been snowing/sleeting/icing/shitting white stuff for about 36 hours now. it’s beautiful to look at, but only on foot. not on four wheels. i was driving around a bunch last night in the snow and it wasn’t bad at all. my friend Lauren and I went all the way down to coffee cartel in the central-west end. Tonight was different. I almost died about 3 times within a 4 mile radius. My friend Stephen had to get out and push my car on hwy 141 because it was stuck. not fun.

Well, on a good note, tomorrow is the big day! well, not the BIG day (being chicago), but the next big thing for me. I’ll be packing my car and moving back down to cape girardeau tomorrow. I’ve got two jobs lined up already, a place to stay, a trunk full of groceries, and of course my newly-acquired vinyl collection. I think that will be all I need for a while. There’s something humbling about a living simply. I enjoy it.

okay, okay, more packing to do still. until next time…

010.

chicagobound09 — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:14:01 +0000

So Southeast Missouri as well as a lot of surrounding states is covered in ICE. Last year we had an ice storm that kept us out of school and society for about a week. Cape became this complete frozen tundra and driving around (when possible) left us feeling lost in our own city. I was living in a drafty old house at the time and it caused all of us living there to become incredibly sick. So, we left for random trips to Walgreens for medicine and Taco Bell. Oh, and of course for alcohol as well.

2008 ice day

Steven Michael Black…drunk at noon on our ice day 2008.

Our ice started last night while Nick was at work and I was at home. After he made his way home he and Jason braved the storm to come and pick me up (aww). We attempted an asian cuisine (fail) and getting wasted (success) and had quite a night. The ice isn’t supposed to let up until 6AM tomorrow morning. I was supposed to be at work tonight but after an hour of scraping my car with Sarah and then attempting to drive…only to find my windows promptly fogged up and began to ice over again…I called in. Jason and Nick braved the storm and are hard at work at Tractors. No school today. No school tomorrow. Awesome.

It’s strange to think that next year I won’t have to be scraping off my car for hours in the cold. It will be incredibly more cold and weather like this probably daily…but just the thought of not having to worry about commute or travel or scraping my car (unless we HAVE to go somewhere) is so wonderful. So so much. I’m going to need to invest in warmer clothes for sure. Got the coat. Need the rest.

That’s about it. Currently 28* and Icy Freezing Rain in Cape…18* and cloudy in Chicago.