Move

I can't tell you how excited I am about my impending move. With the cheaper rent, I'll be able to afford to eat more healthily, and a lot. I'm looking forward to zucchini and squash again—two foods D hates. (No fun cooking for one, you know.) Also looking forward to possibly having a small herb garden, something I haven't been able to do with the cats around. And chicken on the bone. And fish, which I don't even think I know how to make anymore.

But there are many things I will miss about living with D. He's remarkably laid back about my 3 a.m. bubble baths, and I will probably never have another person I live with say, "Compose as late as you want. It won't keep me up." Still, change is good, and I'm excited about this change. It feels like the exact move I need to make before moving out to L.A.

I Want a New Drug

Still Watching

Still a little obsessed with Kitchen Nightmares on the BBC. I used to think, back in my restaurant days, that I was a terrible bartender, waitress, and cook (I did all at one time or another). Now I look at these people who make soup in mop buckets and leave rat droppings in their pantries and serve spoiled food and think maybe I wasn't so bad. I was immature, but I was conscientious and, to my knowledge, I never made anyone sick. I never had any real talent for that business, but I at least had common sense.

Ramsay fascinates me. He's this curious mixture of insults, kindness, and hyperactivity. And because of his excessive cursing I can't help but feel affectionate toward him. He . . . reminds me of my mother as I was growing up. She had high standards, and her language could be appalling when I, my brother, and my sister didn't meet them. But that made her no less kind, and now you would never know that, language-wise, she could put Ramsay to shame. I kind of miss that edge to her, but she's getting on in years, and if she's happy not cursing, I'm happy.

Grammatical Errors

We all make grammatical errors, especially when we're dashing off a blog post or some other update online. But there are a few that get under my skin, like the proverbial nails on a chalkboard.

There's the obvious, "you're" vs. "your." I've caught myself on occasion using "their" when I mean "they're." There are lots of grammatical errors and mispellings I can forgive. I don't even mind "irregardless."

But the one that really gets to me is when someone uses the word "loose" when they mean "lose." "Lose" is a verb. "Loose" is an adjective. I suppose I can just tell myself the "o" button sticks, but when I see this error it literally makes my heart rate go up. I don't know why.

Which ones bug you?

Time to Work, People

Late last week I found a twitter announcement for a meet-up at Chicago Filmmakers. I'm trying to add some video samples to my website and get some more and better samples for my demo disc.

I have two days to put this all together. LOTS of work left to do. Wish me luck!

So Far I'd Give This Summer 3 out of 5 stars

It's been a semi-productive summer so far. I managed to get my website up, get registered for classes, and get a few samples out on Twitter and Facebook. (Although I woke up this morning and discovered I'd lost 10 followers (hate that term) and 3 people I was following. Hope it's just a glitch.) My latest sample (below) is a tone poem, a melancholy yet pretty piano piece I intend to put into my playing repertoire. 

No bites as far as jobs, but I am working on an updated version of Twelve Angry Men with a director at Columbia. She's young, feisty, seems to have it together, and the reading I did with her actors on Monday was great. Really intelligent, thoughtful group who seemed enthusiastic about the play and what it says. Apparently there were not enough people, as I had to read a couple of parts. I managed to do it competently until I had a beer. I just can't seem to build any tolerance when it comes to beer. *shakes head* 

As I was re-reading the play yesterday, marking transitional areas and places where I think music would heighten the drama, I thought of an adaptation: someday I want to do Twelve Angry Men as an alien vs. human play. Yes, you read that right. 

On a more personal, less productive note, thanks to EE I've become obsessed with Gordon Ramsay reality shows—especially those on the BBC. I work out to them, and I was surprised they capture my attention for a longer period of time than shows like 24. Have you seen Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares? In this one, he goes around trying to save failing restaurants. So far, in the eps I've seen, I think he's 1 for 4 because no matter how much he curses and no matter how straight he is, he can't always get past the owners' egos. 

The drill starts off with Mr. Ramsay being served in the failing restaurant. In one, where he helped a 26-year-old restauranteur, the young man in question had a quirky, too-clever menu. I'm still laughing over Ramsay's facial expression when a steak kabob was served to him hanging from some kind of metal contraption, swinging like a donkey's schlong in front of his face.

Edelweiss

This is "Edelweiss," a tone poem featured in Columbia College's rendition of Summerfolk. It accompanies Kaleria's (a character in the play) recitation of her poem of the same title. Once I get the DVD I have edited, I can post here. On my list of tasks!

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Yer Facebook, Matey. Ahoy!

Yar. I just changed my "English (US)" setting to "English (Pirate)" on my Facebook page. Now my friends are mates and when I comment I "be weighin' in on so-and-so's recent tales." Fun.

Books vs. Movies

You know, I hear a lot of laments from readers and writers that books are in mortal peril because they're in competition with movies, video games, etc. for the public's time.

But when the publishing, movie, and video game industries work together, don't they help each other? Hollywood helps the publishing industry by making movies about books, and the publishing industry helps Hollywood by providing ideas. (I'm being a bit facetious here, but in a way, it's true.)

Admittedly, I've not thought very deeply on this this morning. One cup of coffee is not enough for me to expound deeply on any subject. Really I just want to hear your thoughts.

Goodbye Frank

I just found out Frank McCourt died. While I didn't expect him to live as long as Methuselah, I didn't expect him to die anytime soon. I expected to meet him someday and have a pint with him. Now I never will.

I've read Angela's Ashes I think it's 20 times. That's not an exaggeration. His book got me through my Dallas days, and there are passages I could probably quote from memory. 

Raising my pint to you, Frank. You wrote one of my two favorite books in the whole wide world. 

Intermission Music from Summerfolk - sample

Sylvia asked when y'all were going to have samples to listen to, and it just so happens I posted a sample to my twitter account yesterday. Twaud.io is a nifty feature to twitter, allowing you to simply upload mp3's of your audio. No podcasting, embedding players, converting files, etc. Neat.

Below is a podcast of the sample I posted to twitter yesterday. I'm stacy_chambers on twitter, so if you twitter, tweet me! : )

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Back to the Grind

Had an exceedingly pleasant weekend at my parents'. The Three Rivers Festival was just starting, so I took my niece to see the parade, and then we and a couple of friends walked through Food Alley (a.k.a. by us old-timers as "Junk Food Alley"). It was very hot, and we didn't enjoy the food as much as we would have liked. Then we went back to M's apartment, where I napped a bit while my niece and M's nephew played video games. I really felt like I was fighting something off, because even in strong heat, I never sleep during the day. I'm like a reverse vampire in that way. 

Yesterday I saw Drag Me to Hell, which has gotten pretty good reviews—especially for a horror movie. It had a nice arc to the story line; everything that happened made sense in terms of the story. There were stock horror moments (some hilarious, some genuinely creepy), and of course a couple of why-didn't-you-tell-me-this moments. But overall, good fun. The score wasn't bad, either. I'll probably pick it up when it comes out on DVD. 

Today it's back to the grindstone. Meeting today and possible work on the horizon. I don't know whether it's paid work yet. I guess I'll find that out at the meeting. Still, it's a well-known play (and film) and I'm excited about it. After the meeting I'll know more details and and hopefully we'll finalize whether I'm on board. The director for this play seemed to like my work in Summerfolk, and the audio guy for that play (well, the Columbia theater department in general) recommended her to me for this. Word of mouth—you can't beat it.

It's Done

Okay - it's done. Re-done blog list to come . . . 

It looks like I have a new project. It may not pay, but it will provide more music for my reel/website. Meeting with the director on Monday. 

In Which Freddie Gets Whacked, Possibly

When I came up with the name Freddie as a writing name, I intended for Freddie to be my shiftless, jobless, sarcastic, pot-smoking alter-ego. (Aside from the pot smoking, this turned out not to be too far from the truth.) In fact, Freddie was short for the name my father wanted to give me when I was born: Winnefred. My mother vetoed this, and they mutually agreed on a different name. For a long time I debated about "coming out of the closet." Not as a Michael Jackson fan - hah, already did that, : ), but using my real name. I decided to not do that until the day I had a reason to, something I wanted people to see.

Well, the day has come, ladies and gents. I have a website. Some of you already know my real name from dealing with me behind the scenes. I'm sure those of you that don't are on the edge of your seats right now. Are you ready for the pure awesomeness to follow? 

Here's the website address: http://www.stacychambers.com

You should be able to figure out my name from that. For now it features my music. As I do more stuff artwise, I'll add to it. I have a few samples up, one of which you've heard, and more will come. Any feedback you can give is welcome. 

I will attempt to change the address of this blog to http://stacyscafe.blogspot.com/, along with my online name, but I need to find out if it's available. If it is, Freddie gets whacked. Update to come soon!

UPDATE: You know what's stupid? Changing the blog address before anyone has had a chance to see your warning. *smacks forehead, hard*

I'm going to leave this up under the freddiescafe.blogspot address for the time being, until y'all have had a chance to read the update. Please comment to let me know you have. Once I've heard from everyone I keep in a reasonable amount of contact with, I'll change it. Thanks!