Friday, February 2, 2007
9:49:02 AM

I don’t think we could have had a better Friday. In the morning we had a recap of the show; going over the notes and such. The feeling was that we had all done a bang up job. One of us was however quite banged up; Mitch from Ohio got his nose fractured in a backstage accident. From what I’ve heard he is recovering well though. The rest of the morning we spent in a hands on seminar for an in-school Up with People project called “Stand for Peace”. Targeted at elementary students from grades 3 to 6; the program is an entire curriculum based on experimental learning. There are three general concepts that we try to instill; at the personal level, peace begins with me. In part, feeling good about ourselves and our abilities to do things - to make changes; at the communal level, Establishing peace in the community means learning how to coexist harmoniously and respectfully within a diverse context; and the Change level, Becoming an agent of change for peace means developing skills to make thoughtful choices and taking action for peace. It is derived in part from the United nations “International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Voilence for the Children of the World (2001-2010) whos principals include: 1. Fostering a culture of peace through education 2. Promoting respect for all people 3. Advanced understanding, tolerance, and solidarity 4. Promoting international peace.
Interestingly enough, it is currently in the works that UWP will be performing for the United Nations in the fall semester. A partnership with the UN would also help us resolve many of our problems with visas for some people to com to the US. There were 3 students from Nepal and one student from Mongolia that couldn’t come because the US rejected their visas at the last moment.
After a lunch of delicious Chipotle steak wraps the web team was set to start in on the site; there was of course one problem. The net was down all over RMCAD. Being the intuitive problem solvers that we are, we headed to the nearest Starbucks because they all have T-Mobile hotspots. You had to pay for it but it was still cheaper than most of their coffees. This was the second time I’d had Starbucks coffee that day. In the morning Andrew from Maine brought in a box off coffee for the cast. We got the rest of the web team signed up into accounts on www.casta2007.com Now we can really collaborate on the project. Just in case you are wondering, we are using WordPress for managing our site.
When we arrived back at the campus in the afternoon, they announced that our Cast Manager was actually switching over to the Denver office’s admissions department and the Joern (from Germany) was taking over as Cast manager. We had a summary session for the city of Denver stay.
For supper we had oktoberfest sausages with sauerkraut with baked beans; mmm mmm good. After supper we drove to near Boulder to a bar named “Ascension”. Now this isn’t your regular kind of bar. It was an Oxygen bar. They served many “elixir” drinks made from distilled plant extracts and various herbs. I had one called Mind-Over-Muddle. I can’t say that it actually cleared my mind but it sure did taste pretty good. They also gave complimentary psychic Chakra readings.
Here is an excerpt from a Wikipedia article:
Anahata

Anahata or the heart chakra is related to higher emotion, compassion, love, equilibrium, and well-being. It is related to the thymus, located in the chest. This organ is part of the immune system, as well as being part of the endocrine system. It produces T cells responsible for fighting off disease, and is adversely affected by stress. Symbolised by a lotus with twelve petals. Color- Green

[edit] Manipura

Manipura or the solar plexus chakra is related to the transition from base to higher emotion, energy, assimilation and digestion, and is said to correspond to the roles played by the pancreas and the outer adrenal glands, the adrenal cortex. These play a valuable role in digestion, the conversion of food matter into energy for the body. Symbolised by a lotus with ten petals. Color- yellow

He said that these two Chakra’s were very closely linked in me. My great love of the world causes me to have less fears and thus I’m probably going to try more different things in life. Whether this is true or not is anyones guess but it was kinda neat. Last but not least we did some oxygen. They had many flavours to choose from. I had coconut, Peppe had Vanilla, Michelle took Pumpkin Spice, and Kevin tried lavender. If nothing else it sure cleared up my sinuses. Tomorrow I’m hoping to get to the post office to finally send off some post cards.

The Drive to RMCAD
RMCAD Campus
Armando the Admissions Cowboy, Danny Admissions Team Leader, Joke the Admissions team
Fuel for the day
Stand for Peace
Self Portrait
Lauran & Aoife prep for our home team meeting presentation
Jeff before he heads off to do Advanced Work
Thumb Wars!
Oxygen Bar!
Extreme Wardriving

The Cast A 2007 core webdev team
Give me a hit of that oxygen!

Its all Good™

Thursday, February 1, 2007
7:50:36 AM

I’ve decided to get a head start on my entry for today on account of the fact that after the show tonight we’ve got to take down all of the equipment. That’ll be around 11:30 pm. Its really interesting to note the demographics of the vehicles here. By far, cars are outnumbered by large pickup trucks an SUV’s. In fact it seems that cars are a rare sight sometimes. Another interesting thing to note is that there are wireless networks everywhere; I mean literally everywhere. Whenever we stop at a stop light I do a quick poll and there are usually several to choose from. Some of them are unsecured but surprisingly the majority of them are locked.

12:46:08 PM

Well, Its been a pretty good day so far. We spent most of the morning in the basement going over notes from the pre dress rehearsal last night. I am glad that I was able to find my black shoes. Otherwise I’d still be wearing my white running shoes covered in black staging tape. Last night Peppe and I did our nightly workout routine. We put on some techno and do pushups until we collapse. Even with all the dancing and moving we’ve been doing I’m surprisingly not sore at all with the exception of my lower back. Lunch is a full hour late today; I haven’t any idea what it is but I’ll be finding our in a minute. I can’t believe that we’re almost at the end of our four week stint already; Monday we have a 10 hour bus ride to New Mexico. I hope I get to sit next to someone who doesn’t smell bad (or at least not as bad as me) Anyhow, Its all Good™
4:49:58 PM
As it turned out, lunch was baked beans and potato salad. I had a whole bunch of stuff to do for people regarding various computer related things and the website. At least the beans were still warm half an hour later when I got a chance to eat them. Mmm they were good and reminded me of home. I’ve been taking lots of pictures today because today is the last day that we’ll be here in Teikyo. Tomorrow we are going back to RMCAD. We have Saturday and Sunday off but I have a feeling that I’ll spend the bulk of them doing laundry, packing and sleeping. I think supper tonight is something mexican. Its all Good. I think I’ve finally got the fiddle part down part for the two Irish songs. The rest of the show is coming together quite well. If yesterday was any indication; tonight should be pretty good assuming we can keep the energy level up. The house should be full of all the host families; with them plus everyone else we’re expecting around 1000 people.
I’m so tired I can’t wait for this week to be over. Although with that comes an new City and a new host family. I’ll have to make sure I keep in touch with the Skillens throughout my trip.

12:57:48 AM

Keep Well, the show went pretty well I think. All of the timings and cues were right on as were the lights and sound. I fumbled up the fiddle part a bit on my first song but hey its not like there was 1000 people watching or anything. Well there actually weren’t 1000 people there in the audience because Denver is currently experiencing another snow storm and the roads were pretty bad; It was more like several hundred. After the show was over we loaded two big trucks with all of our equipment ready to hit the road for Farmington New Mexico come Monday morning, 7 AM.

7:07:56 AM
Well, I couldn’t post my entry last night because the net was down because of the blizzard. It was pretty wild for a while here and we’re definitely going to have to dig out the car this morning!

How to use gaff tape to turn white running shoes into black dress shoes.
Last minute dance practice
Teikyo Threatre
Teikyo theatre
My "Me Page"
In the Dressing Room
In the Green Room

Thursday, February 1, 2007
1:28:08 AM

Today was not too bad at all. I started of my day with the usual two large mugs of coffee and a Nutella and Peanut butter sandwich on multigrain bread. I slept during the ride in this morning. Our first session of the morning was on meditation. Although it certainly didn’t wake me up any I did find it relaxing. The bulk of the rest of the day was spent working on transitions and dance numbers on stage. We actually performed a pre-dress rehearsal for an audience of about 200 people this evening. The actual dress rehearsal is tomorrow night. Our first official show isn’t until farmington. I think it went quite well all things considered. They actually clapped and cheered for us.
Interestingly enough; Up With People has been parodied by both the Simpsons and South Park. I found some links so you can watch them.
During our performance today there was a member of the UN in the audience for its program The Culture of Peace. “http://www.unac.org/peacecp/intro/index.html” One of the fall 2007 casts will be performing for the United Nations. Awesome eh?

Simpsons “Bart vs Thanksgiving” (aka Hooray for Everything)
http://cartoons.peekvid.com/s2533/e54428/


South Park

Part one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnIoWK8d86I
Part two http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_hN9NJ_RMw

Part three http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO98F5ElZMM


Video and Light Tech Crew

Jeremy and the MacBook Pro that runs the show
Teikyo Stage

Peppe makes it all sound good
The Band
Mac Haven! (except for Danni's dell but he's from Denmark so we'll let it slip)
Teikyo Campus
Seats 1000 and should be a full house tomorrow


Its all GOod™

Tuesday, January 30, 2007
9:18:27 PM

I’m typing this blog as we drive back from the Teikyo campus. Its over a 45 minute drive so I’ve got some time. We just passed one of the other shuttle vans and one of the staff members tried to moon us. I can’t say that today was the best day I’ve had. We ran from 8 AM till 9:pm; thats on top of the driving. We did two full run-throughs today. I’m dead tired. I didn’t suck so bad at the dancing and singing in the morning but my feet definitely hurt and my voice is very strained. I did however receive my fiddle from home today; packed in a brand new case with a new set of strings. The old case got broken on the marine atlantic ferry crossing back from NFLD before christmas. I forgot to however tune my fiddle to the band before I went on stage so it sounded quite suck. I was so completely embarrassed I almost started crying on stage. To make matters worse, the music director was quite coarse with me about it. I’ve only got one more day to make it perfect so I’m quite stressed about it.
I had a meeting over lunch about the website. I’ve got to do up the header template image tonight. All my troubles aren’t anything compared to some peoples. I found another Canadian girl, Aria, from B.C. Out on the stairs and quite upset. After a talk I had learned that they had taken away her one and only solo; and of course being purely classically trained does not dance (well for that and other reasons). But every so often it comes to my attention that there are some serious problems with how the UWP staff deal with problems sometime. I know that they try to be accommodating but there are some things that just aren’t right. The music director for example has completely trashed classical music at every single opportunity since day one. If they want a song done a certain way they should sing it that way instead of making a mockery of another style of music for whatever reason. Also I’ve heard complaints from people about bad treatment and lack of understanding from some of the dance staff as well with regards to working with injuries. Of Course these are only isolated incidents but none the less they shouldn’t happen. Sometimes I think that I wouldn’t recommend UWP to people who are purely in it for the on stage music end of things.
AnyHow my blogs will probably be a bit lacking for the next few days but they’ll be picking up again when we hit the road next Monday to Farmington, New Mexico. Its all Good™

Tuesday, January 30, 2007
12:27:26 AM

Today was a very long and tiring day. We had to get up early this morning because we switched to the Teikyo Japanese University campus to set up all of our AV equipment for the first show on Thursday. I can’t believe its time to do our first show already. I don’t think I’m ready yet with my Culture Jam Irish fiddle introduction. Staying up these late hours probably doesn’t help me get rid of this nagging cough either. The climate is unbelievably dry here in Denver; especially compared to Newfoundland. Here we are a good mile above sea level. I can’t wait to see if my stamina has improved when we head back down to sea level when we hit New Orleans next month. Anyhow. The morning was spent unloading the trucks of all the lighting and sound equipment; then getting one of the trucks out of the snow when it got stuck. I worked on some background mic group vocal stuff this morning for “Keep the Beat”. Lunch was rice and a leafy green salad. I also had a meeting over lunch some of the blog team; yes indeed www.casta2007.com actually directs you to a page now. This is a good thing. After lunch we spent a great deal of time reviewing dance steps as well as the New Zealand Haka. I have to learn to release the beast in me and really scare the beegeepers out of whoever is in the front 5 rows. Its coming along nicely. The rest of the afternoon we worked on the “Stomp” piece. I literally danced until my feet bled. Its also probable to note that the smell of my feet probably caused others to bleed as well, but from the nose. Peppe, Whitney, and I got a ride back with one of the directors from the office, Tim Lane. Also along was Meg from Rhode Island, Joke from the Netherlands, and Andrew from Maine. Supper back at the Skillens was a delicious Meatloaf with baked beans. I will sleep well tonight; and I certainly won’t be cold either. Tomorrow is an even longer day with dancing and singing from 8am straight through till 9pm. Thursday will be 8am till 1am the next day; talk about hardcore! Its all Good™, soon we’ll be ready to take this show on the road!

The New Morning route; Nice view of the Colorado Rockies
Teikyo Campus
Gettingt the Truck Unstuck; smashing the ice with stage props!
Teikyo Heights
Mic Group Reearsal

Stage Set up
Me, aspiring to be in the ballet
Sooooo Tired
The Stage set up
The ride Home
Its all Good™

Sunday, January 28, 2007
11:17:31 PM

Well, I hope you like the new look of the page. I decided to change it up a little bit. I've also added some new features. Now, anyone should be able to post comments; not just registered blogger users. So feel free to drop me a line, let me know where you are reading from. According to Google Analytics, the furthest visitor has been from Malmö, Sweden. I'm also not sure if my blog radio is working right just yet but feel free to try it. Happy Reading!

Just when you thought days couldn’t get any awesomer; they do. I slept in until about 11 or so. Kevin, Michelle, Peppe, Whitney, Mary and her two kids, as well as myself all went out to Gunther Toody’s for breakfast again. I had probably the best 50’s style Reeces Pieces malt milkshake I’d ever had for breakfast along with the “Big Bopper: combo consisting of scrambled eggs, toast, home fries, and split fried polish sausage with hot sauce. Its all Good™. After breakfast we drove to Boulder to go to the rebuilt Tea House from Dushanbe, Kajikistan. (http://www.boulderteahouse.com) Although we had to wait a while to get in and seated it was quite worth it. I had a double espresso mocha laté while the others tempted their taste-buds with some exotic tea blends from all over the world.
The inside was very ornately decorated. We were seated in the corner on a raised platform. It was pretty neat although made quite a stink when I took my shoes off. We then went to the Flatirons plaza (http://www.flatironcrossing.com/aboutus.asp) to do some shopping and such. I tried to find a watch that has a built in flash drive. I didn’t but that’s kind of what I was expecting anyhow. It is certainly a different shopping experience there. We all went for supper at the Tea Garden Restaurant. It was some pretty good Chinese food.

Gunther Toody's

The Rocky Mountains
Kajikistan Teahouse
Tea Time!
Ceiling

They Even gave us a tea timer!
Me and my Espresso

Indside

The Pond Inside

BroomField
Heading to the Mall
In the Disney Store
Shopping Old Navy Style. Michelle, Arial, and Kevin
Twilight

Chinese Food!
Its all Good™
The Gang
Chopsticks make it better.
Peppe and the Girls build a fort.

Its all Good™