Real or Fake?

Every year growing up, the day after Thanksgiving we would go down to the Hartman Christmas Tree Farm, pick out and cut down our own tree. We’d drag it over to the netting machine, pull it through, and get a candy cane. It was the BEST. A few years ago my parents bought a fake tree. They came to the conclusion that a live tree made us all ill every year. I'm sure it was just the change in weather.

Yes!

With faux trees you always get a perfect tree. My mom is very into color coordination of decorations these days. I think that’s very attractive, but it lacks a certain personality. I miss the mismatched ornaments, the old wooden ones, our birth year balls, the tinselly garland, the funky shaped ornaments, the bubblers and, of course, the old badass, multicolored huge lights.

That's the fire hazardous stuff!

My mom made the tree skirt the year my parents got married: 1975. It's a huge green skirt with red fringe trim and the words Merry Christmas 1975 in red letters outlines in white, hand sewn across the lower half of the skirt. Above that my mom embroidered the full name and birthdates of my sister, brother and me. Her intention was to eventually add our spouses and children both of which, as of right now, pertain to everyone but me. No pressure, Niki. My sister’s been married for 20 years and Mom still hasn’t added my brother in law. I’ve got time!

Me & Dad checkin' out the lights

Mom wants to retire out stockings. They’re three feet long, wide fuzzy red stockings trimmed with white fuzz with our names stitched on in green felt. Mine says Nikie. I'm not sure when the spelling changed. My name was never my call, contrary to popular belief. I love these stockings. Mom is very, very into stockings. When she was growing up it wasn't about the presents under the tree, it was all about the stockings. We always get an orange and an apple: red for Sammy and green for me (we're particular) and the apples are always impossibly huge. I don't know where she finds these bad boys. Also nuts of all kind and ribbon candy. The ribbon candy always stuck to the inside of the stocking and became covered in red fuzz. She learned one year to wrap them in plastic. Now get Christmas cellophane bags of M&M's, peanut butter cups, a storybook box of Life Savers and a paddle ball. She individually wraps each little present. Each pack of batteries, new toothbrush, Yo-Yo's, mini travel games, mini remote control cars, bubbles, poppers, jewelry, make-up, nail polish, hair ornaments, flu medicine....all kinds of little toys and trinkets and odds and ends.

The Mom

We open our stockings first while mom and dad wake up, and mom has usually made blueberry muffins, OJ and eggs. We open the far too many, yet very appreciated, gifts it is solely my mom's responsibility to procure. Our cat would rummage through the crumples or wrapping paper to sneak around to the back of the tree so he could eat it. He would invariably barf it up in the hallway in the middle of the night and I'd get up to go to the bathroom and step in it. "Ewww!!!! DAD!!!!" Dad was always on cat barf duty.

And Tinker Toy duty.

A big breakfast, a big dinner and we kept the tree up until at least New Years day. I could buy some pine air fresheners and hang them inside our fake tree and it'll be just like when we were kids! There is a certain magic of Christmas that stays with childhood...the anticipation, the wonderment...but keeping the traditions alive lets that magic echo up and ring through the last strains of the year, swollen with reflections, nostalgia and the hope for my very own Christmas tree that Jameson can eat next year.

This tree will do nicely.

The Reality Behind the Interview #12

“This position pats $8.50 an hour. Is that ok?”


No. No, it’s not. I made $8.50 an hour working at a bookstore 8 years ago. What is that take home? $250 a week? I get that in unemployment that doesn’t require me to bore myself to tears 40 hours and 6 days a week in your impossibly tiny, dirty, ricketty, undecorated, unfurnished office.


“Sure!”

The Reality Behind the Interview #83

“What attracted you to this position?”

That fact it was available. What company is this again? You are aware I send out hundreds of resumes a day, aren’t you?



“I just really enjoy administration and organizing and being there to help others!”

Inception - The Greek Labyrinth

Ellen Page's character's name is Ariadne, a Greek goddess. Ariadne was " 'Mistress of the Labyrinth', both a winding dance-ground and in the Greek view a prison with the dreaded Minotaur at its centre."

The main character Cobb hires Ariadne to be the architect of the labyrinth of the dreams they traverse.

A young man named Theseus, future king of Trozen, volunteered to kill the Minotaur. Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and gave him a sword and a ball of red fleece thread to help him find his way back out of the labyrnth.

Some modern mythologists regard the Minotaur as a solar personification and a Minoan adaptation of the Baal-Moloch. Baal is an Arabic word meaning lord or master. Moloch can refer to any person or thing which demands or requires costly sacrifices. Moloch = Mal, Cobb's deceased wife who haunts his dreams and is the proverbial Minotaur at the center of the dream labyrnth that he must slay in order to return home and back to reality.

The Nature of Existence

Why are we here, and what are we supposed to do about it? What started the Universe, and was it a mistake? Does God exist, and why does he seem so interested in our sex lives? After exploring the phenomenon of Trekkies, filmmaker Roger Nygard took on The Nature of Existence. Nygard wrote down the toughest 85 questions he could think of, roamed the globe to the source of each of the world’s philosophies, religions, and belief systems, and interviewed people who have influenced, inspired, or freaked out humanity. Combining an investigative approach with a spiritual quest, the film is a humorous yet uplifting search for enlightenment, presenting some of the most challenging ideas and extraordinary people living today.

Trailer

Is there such a thing as an ex-atheist?

"There are many very sincere questioners. Some folks are quite torn up about it, so unsure are they that it becomes a source of extreme anxiety for them. Many were terrified of atheism thinking that if they admitted they didn’t believe, even admitted they doubted, they’d suddenly turn into serial killers. They hadn’t figured out that ethics and morality are already here” and if there was no god, then clearly you didn’t need one to tell you how to behave. When one stops believing, one realizes that instead of an emptiness, a feeling of something missing, they discover a fantastic sense of calm, like stepping out of a stuffy bar into a beautiful spring day. It feels like the cage is gone, the blinders are gone. Instead, though, we find that people don’t like atheism. It scares them, because it challenges what they have been told is their core reason for being. So, they heap all sorts of negative traits onto atheism.

It’s important to challenge this perspective, to change the way atheists are viewed. Most atheists, just like most theists, are good people. We need to make sure the world knows that."

Link

Too Good For Facebook Bullshit

Seriously? Quit Facebook? Will people ever stop being so dumb? If you don’t want anyone to know your personal information like your phone number or address then DON’T PUT THEM ON YOUR FACEBOOK. Don’t want people to know your relationship status or your sexual or political or religious orientation….wait for it….DON’T PUT THEM ON FACEBOOK.

And yes, anyone could call you and invite you to whatever event they’re planning because you’re too much of an elitest snob to be on FB. Really? You’re not that important and neither is your information. Instead you’re going to be That Guy who is too good for it? Nice. I can’t wait to be friends with YOU.

Facebook isn’t just about keeping in touch with old friends but about making new ones. Are you not into that either? Learning about new groups and businesses and PEOPLE. If you don’t want to be friends with the assholes from high school DON’T FRIEND THEM. See how simple that is? Hate your family? DON’T FRIEND THEM. Don’t like what someone is posting? Put them on IGNORE or DEFRIEND THEM. This ain’t rocket science, people.

I’m an actor and artistic type who is also a movie buff and a scifi nerd. Facebook helps me meet other actors and directors, other theatre and film companies, stay on top of great shows and be able to tell all of my friends about them all in one fell swoop. What the hell is so horrible about that? I’ve discovered great boutiques and artists, funny t-shirt companies, great geeky websites…what a horrible place Facebook must be! Damn you for all this wonderful information and the opportunity to meet people who like the same stuff as me! DAMN YOU!!!!

Not wanting a FB page says to me that you also obviously have nothing interesting to contribute to the world, either. No opinions on, well anything. No interest in sharing anything with anyone, not interested in knowing anything about anyone else’s lives. Exclaiming to the world that you’re too good for Facebook doesn’t make you look cool or hip or with it. It proves that you’re just an elitest snob who thinks far too much of yourself. You’re dangerously disproportionately self involved - pull your head out your ass.

Hopper: My Complicated Relationship with James Dean

Hopper: My Complicated Relationship with James Dean

Hopper told me he thought he was “the best young actor around” until he saw Dean on the set of “Rebel. He told Dean: “I don’t have a clue what you are doing, but I know how great you are. What should I do? Should I stop my contract [at Warner Bros.] and go study with Lee Strasberg in New York?”

Dean took him aside and gave him advice: “He said you have got to start doing things and not showing them. He said don’t have any preconceived ideas about how the scene is going to play. Just go on a moment-to-moment reality level, and don’t presuppose anything.”

Traffic Survival School: Surviving The People

There's always at least one person in these classes who can't shut up about how much they don't want to be there. More so than that it's their insistence that they are far more inconvenienced and important than you and therefore their time is far more valuable than yours. "I hate wasting my time." Because the rest of us don't? Because everyone else here is just SO excited and enthralled with the prospect? Your time is no more important or special than anyone else’s, sweetie. Hate to break it to you. If you don't take this class then your license is suspended so maybe it IS worth your time. And maybe if you hadn't gotten a bazillion speeding tickets, a DUI, and then totaled your car, you wouldn't be in this class to begin with. So don't act like you're so superior to everyone else in here that made some stupid driving mistake.

It's also supremely enjoyable to have you sit a few chairs away from me and decide you need to call your coworkers to check on work stuff and forget how to use a reasonable phone voice. Then proceed to tell them you're "stuck sitting in the front row" and please call a few people and tell them all the same thing. Loudly. Please don't step outside or in the other room to make these calls, please, please, PLEASE make them loudly in front of all of us because we're all so very interested in your incredibly mentally stimulating job in sales with Express Flooring.

Then, please rush through the GROUP survey and then proceed to finish all four of the quizzes while commenting, "If we get all this done we can LEAVE. I hate wasting my time." Hate to break it to you honey, but we're here until 10. It also says in huge bold letters across every paper they give us to NOT ASK ABOUT LEAVING EARLY. If they said 6-10 they don't mean we can leave at 8. And please keep your Blackberry on and sneak looks at it while we're in class despite the fact that it's completely obvious and obnoxious. Oh wait, I forgot. You're so much more important than the rest of us. When we get a break please say loudly that now you can send some emails. Because no one else in class in inconvenienced by having to be here, just you. No one else had other things they'd rather be doing, just you. Silly me. Really, all you're doing is irritating the shit out of everyone else by concentrating, out loud, on how much you don't want to be here. You just sound like a pretentious, stuck up snot.

And please ask asinine questions. For instance when someone mentions the ticket you can get for flicking a cigarette butt out your window while driving, ask,” What are you supposed to do with them? Put them out in your car?" That IS what they make ashtrays in cars for. And if you don't want your car to smell like smoke maybe you shouldn't smoke in it. And if you don't like the smell of smoke on you then maybe you shouldn't smoke. Just throwing that out there.

Please just shut up and we'll all get through this and be back out on the roads to cut each other off like normal people.

Scarving For Attention!

I set up my Etsy shop for all my fantabulous scarves!

Scarving For Attention

Tons of fabulous colors. My current selection is made from Lions Brand Homespun yarn and they each measure almost 9 feet long. That's a lot of scarf! Super warm, they're perfect for helping you thaw out from the late spring snow and wind. Here's a sampling:

Meadow


Painted Desert


Wild Fire


Drop on in, look around, snatch some up and spread the word! If you like what you see let people know. We thank you for your support!

*Niki
Scarving Artist

Closing Weekend

Phaedre at Nearly Naked Theatre closes this weekend. Only two more shows. It has been such a great experience. To work with a director/writer on the world permiere debute of his script, something he is so passionate about and has worked so hard on has been a priveledge. It's been exciting to watch the story grow and flesh out on stage.

The cast and crew has been wonderful. So much fun, so many laughs backstage and on the town. I'm really going to miss seeing them every week. Theatre is a strange thing. It's like a microcosim of life. We create this world, develope it, live in it, then put it to rest, all in a matter of months. We experience and entire life cycle and then line up to do it all over again. I think the Hindus were right about reincarnation except it's all happening right now in this lifetime. And I like it.

Tech Week!

Dig it.

It's tech week and we're workin' this show every night this week for our opening night this Friday. Here's a link to the Facebook event with all the info. You can also rock over to the Nearly Naked website for ticket info. It's going to be one hell of an unfamily friendly show and worth every damn penny. Sweet nudity from both sexes. AND my melodious voice and visage. It's like a gold mine.


Ben as Eros and Missy as Aphrodite

Andrew Koenig Missing! Last Seen in Vancouver BC. Help!

From my friend EJ Scott:

I just found out that my friend Andrew Koenig has been missing for a week, last seen on 2/14 in Vancouver. Didn't make his flight back to the US on 2/16. The Vancouver Police are involved, and lots of people are looking. If you're in the Northwest, please keep your eyes out. If you've seen Andrew since February 14th, contact Detective Raymond Payette of the Vancouver PD at 604-717-2534.





From Dave Holmes:

HAS ANYONE SEEN HIM?

Andrew Koenig (AK-47, the video guy on “Never Not Funny,” and “Boner” from “Growing Pains”) has been missing for a week, last seen 2/14 in Vancouver. Didn’t make his flight back to the US on 2/16. The Vancouver Police are involved, and lots of people are looking. Could you reblog this and help get the word out? And say some prayers or think some positive thoughts?

UPDATE: It’s not that I don’t appreciate the “like”s, but PLEASE DO REBLOG THIS. You might have followers in Vancouver, and though the presence of the word “Boner” may make this look like a joke, I assure you it isn’t. Thanks!

PHAEDRE now on SALE with EVIL DEAD!

THE SEASON ENDS WITH TRAGEDY & GORE!

TICKETS TO THE WORLD PREMIERE OF PHÆDRE ON SALE NOW!!

And purchasing PHAEDRE gives you access to PRE-SALE of EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL

BEAT THE SELL-OUT BY ORDERING BOTH SHOWS NOW!!!



PHÆDRE

Based on the play by Jean Baptiste Racine

Adapted & directed by Damon Dering

Cursed by the goddess Aphrodite, Phædre, the dying queen of Athens, falls in love with her stepson, Hippolytus. Her love grows into a dangerously passionate obsession that will destroy fathers, sons and kingdoms with its fury. One of the most enduring and powerful stories of classical mythology, this production of PHÆDRE will switch between classical and modern language, and between ancient and modern eras. An obsessive love story recalling the poetry of Euripides and the violent energy of Fatal Attraction. PHÆDRE is intended for mature audiences,containing adult themes & language, sexuality and nudity.


PHAEDRE preveiws on FRIDAY, MARCH 5TH,

opens on SATURDAY, MARCH 6TH and runs THU-FRI-SAT at 8:00pm until SATURDAY, MAR 27TH
SUN 03/07 & 03/21 at 6PM and SUN 03/14at 2PM

ALL SEATING IS GENERAL ADMISSION
FIRST COME (cough) FIRST SERVED

General Admission tickets
$25.00 and up

To purchase tickets call Phoenix Theatre's Box Office at (602) 254-2151 or visit us online at
www.nearlynakedtheatre.org

Performances are at:
THE LITTLE THEATRE at PHOENIX THEATRE
100 E. McDowell Rd. - Phx Theatre/Phx Art Museum complex on Central & McDowell

formspring.me

Doistoevski?

Dostoevsky wrote the difinitive paper on exestentialism, Notes From Underground. It blew my mind. Been a fan ever since.

Ask me anything

CAST, Bitches!!

That is CORRECT!

I have been cast in Phaedre with Nearly Naked Theatre! MotherFUCK YEAH! I worked long and hard on this mo and I have fuckin' jazzed to be in it!


Nike, Greek Goddess of Victory, and my namesake.

The initial audition went well and the director called me the night before callbacks to direct me over the phone on how to read the monologue I had done at auditions. Callbacks lasted three hours and I read at least five times. I knew it was down to me for either the part of Ismene/Aphrodite, the princess's best friend, and the goddess of love (who appears nude), and the part of Panope, the narrator. I was bestowed the gift of Panope and I am thrilled.

I love being a story teller and I really feel like I convey the imagery of Greece and how magnificent the characters are. I also feel like I'm in comand of the show as I get to open it, show up here and there throughout it, and probably close it, as narrators are want to do. I'll see the script on Sunday when rehearsals start.


And, in a first for me, I already have an audition date set up for 12th Night of The Living Dead with Stray Cat. It's going to be a lot of work to be actively working on a current production while working on a Shakespearean monologue for another. I'm glad I am unemployed at the moment so I can have the time to devote to this: the things that are actually important to me. There are only three chicks in that play and I hope I kick enough ass to get one of the parts.

Always working. That's where I would like to be.

Exclamation Point

The poor little dot was now without a family. His top heavy vertical line brother was killed as they left the ice cream shop. A big rig jumped the curb and was on a colision course with the little dot. So at the last second top heavy vertical line punted the litte dot like a pro soccer player to safety. The little dot owes his life to top heavy vertical line. Too bad little dot grew up to be a rapist. Just goes to show you can never trust punctuation. And now exclamation point has a back story. ~ Sammy

Happy New Year?

And things were going so well.

I was laid off yesterday. Rad. I actually liked this job and the people and the company. So, of course, they had to decide it wasn't financially fesiable to keep me on. And now all those plans I had go on hold. Like buying new jeans, paying off debt, saving money, traveling... I can only hope that this doesn't go on for another seven months again.

This time I'm going to use my time differently. I don't want to go back down the depression road: sleeping all day, not sleeping at night, not being able to find the motivation to even get out of bed let alone do anything else.

I'm going to keep my gym membership and go every day. I'm going to clean my room and get rid of all the shit I've been holding on to for too long. Take books and CDs to Bookmans. Spend more time at the bookstores and visit more museums. In the past when I've been unemployed I would leave the house daily, usually to go to the bookstore. This is what kept me feeling normal and gave me a reason to get up and get dressed every day. I've got to keep myself to some kind of productive routine.

Also during this time I hope to find some kind of job I can do from home or that is art or theatre related. I know there are people out there who have these kinds of jobs I just need to find out what they are and how to get one for myself. I wish there was a huge need for scarves all of a sudden.