Jumbo Snack Pack: Two Entries in One

There is smoke, or steam, or something just so, rising always from the building across the street from me. It is a self-proclaimed Ironworks, which recalls a time when all businesses were suffixed with the word "-works." Waterworks, Metalworks, Widgetworks, Cabinetworks. I am just kidding. There was no such time. There may have been, but I don't know enough about it to make such a generalization!

I have no curtains yet in my new apartment. Yes! I moved. To Brooklyn, land of Kings. And my apartment lies inside one Castle, and I could not be happier in it. These last few weeks have been some of my busiest, which is a loud a brash statement to make at 3:35 on a Monday, but as you can see, I've naried with my blog posts, and they've been like Tim & Eric movies so it's not even some writing. I have to pick out a paint yet, and get my dresser and wine crates, and the curtains, yes, but it's all coming together nicely and neatly.

I like having an above ground train; it usually propels me to read oftener than its below-ground counterparts. Below ground, all I can do is sit and stare or be with music. Reading underground makes me feel weary. I read faster and more productively in natural sunlight, perhaps.

I was in a reading over the weekend, at Fresh Ground Pepper's final event of the year. We did 6 plays in 2 days, all with different casts and directors and playwrights. It was a blast, and it was in Brooklyn, so I got to walk there and back and get a cheesesteak.

I have hosted Speeddating events on pretty much every Sunday night since early June of this year, and this past Sunday we had a very rough one. Everyone was out of sorts and taking it out on me; it escalated in intensity and ridiculousness to the point that some lady yelled "I'm a lawyer!" in my face in order to, I don't know, beat me into validating her fears about life and love? I survived the barrage of angry women hurling their condescension at me, holding their Real-Life Jobs and Real-World Experience over my head like it's my fault that they are even at this event--when all I'm doing is, you know, ringing a bell so guys can rotate and doling out spring rolls and just being really nice to everyone so that maybe they'll be really nice to each other and maybe get over the Hurdle that is Putting Yourself Out There In Order To Get To Know Someone, helping them maybe have the courage to sit with a stranger for a few minutes and maybe possibly find a connection--I survived it, sure, but by the end I was feeling really low.

Dejected and tired and very starving, I shuffled into a pizza place pre-train and I met a fellow from Dallas. He was a Cowboys fan (blech) but we sat with each other and ate our pizza, I told him about my horrible night and he told me about his pretty good one, and we exchanged conversation about hobbies and jobs and salsa dancing and sports and growing up in the Southwest. And he told me something I hear so often, something I have heard from quite a few people lately in various contexts and degrees: You can only have as good a time as the goodness you put forth. You can only find love if you give love to the world. If you go into a situation with a negative energy, you will partake in a negative outcome.

You know, blah blah, The Secret, blah Oprah blah. I think it's true, though, I really do. I could have been weirded out by this guy who approached me in a Ray's Pizza and not talked to him and left, and I would have gone home hungry, in a bad mood, without the reminder he so generously and warmly bestowed upon me.

It really lifted my spirits, making friends with this random guy. He's in my phone as "Adrian, pizza" and maybe I'll see him again, and maybe I won't, but either way, when I'm scrolling through my phone to text Amy or Andrew or Ashley, I will most definitely think of him, and our fearless non-missed connection, and his positive message.

Other Exciting and Happy Things of the Past Few Days!
- Hung out in Queenz with some dears and read a play and drank some wine/whiskey
- Ran into DC! In Union Square. He slipped his book in my bag and we caught up in seconds.
- Dad met Steven Gerrard and Michael Ballack, WHAAAA
- Swiped some dumplings at work today. Savory.
- I start rehearsals tomorrow for a production of Hamlet directed by my dear friend John that will be in February!
- A reading of a musical I am co-writing under the guise of lovely Rob Heller will happen on December 17th at The Cherry Pit!
- I asked for time off from work to go home for Christmas! Oh, and I'm handmaking my gifts this year, and they are baller.
- I have some inkling ideas for my Christmas card. Be ready for one, if I love you. I probably do.
- Tchotchkes

Payback Snack

All of this Fixing It With Money has left me broke as a joke. I am literally counting the quarters I can put toward my rent in case this one dumb check doesn't go through tomorrow. These past few months have been a constant re-learning of the same lesson: Save Yer Frickin Money.

I did get a new MacBook, but I didn't splurge on it; it was an overdue gift from my parents for graduating from college last year. A lot of the things I did with my brother Boopsie while he was in town I was able to do because my parents paid for it (half as his high school graduation present, half as my birthday present).

I am in the throes of getting two new jobs and ditching my unemployment, and that transition left me with a lot of paycheck delays that are now nipping at my heels. There are bills I actually have not paid yet that I have to get on top of, there are loans that I need to undefer to put my credit score back on track, there are plans I have for saved money (gym membership, headshot printings, plane tickets home and to Europe) that I have had to put on hold time and again because there is no money saved.

All that, and the fact that when I'm feeling down, I go out to dinner with my friends, which is deeply therapeutic and always hilarious and fun but at the same time it's completely depleting my resources. And for what? My mental and social well-being? I could host a jamboree in the park or meditate transcendentally. We could watch Netflix, we could go to free concerts, we could play baseball. I could start doing yoga or jogging around that big pond or making collages for people's birthdays. I don't need to eat fifteen dollar pasta every other day.

I don't know why I can't get it through my head that I have to be more resourceful. It's stressing me out and it's entirely my fault, so I'm just going to grit my teeth and get it done.

This is the most grown-up topic I've ever blogged on; meanwhile, I am a selfish child! Boo hoo hoo.

JacSnacks

Last night at Art Underground I wrote "WINO FOREVER" on my arm and it wouldn't come off in my shower.

In the past week, three strangers have told me (upon answering their where-am-i-from queries) that they can hear my Arizona accent. ???

Facebook is broken on my sad computer but I SWEAR next week will begin the age of New Macbook

And it's Willoughby, not Willowz-Bee (or is it?)

Snick for Snack

There couldn't be a movie trailer catered more manipulatively to my liking.

Black Canyon ReadingSnack

Come see the world premiere reading of

Black Canyon City: A History
written by Jaclyn Backhaus
directed by Andrew Neisler

part of the Groundwork Reading Series at breedingground productions' Spring Fever Festival!

"Hunter Wilcox is no scientist, but he spends his nights with tonic bottles and phonographs in the middle of an old mining town, conducting experiments that he hopes will help him solve some odd mysteries. In Black Canyon City, the souls of the dead seek out living ears to tell their stories and living bodies to uncover their best-kept secrets. It’s a place where nothing worthwhile happens ‘til the sun goes down. And down by the fire, things are happening…"

ONE DAY ONLY!
June 6th, 2009
4 pm
The Robert Moss Theatre (nee The Linhart Theatre)
440 Lafayette St. 3rd Floor
across from The Public Theater

Starring: Jessie Barr*, Yung-I Chang, Ellie Famutimi, Matthew R Gehring, Lena Hudson, Michael Lister, David Morris, and Dan Pfau

Tickets are available at

http://www.breedingground.com/sff/tickets/index.htm

Come out and support breedingground productions and the development of this exciting new project!

*appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity Association.

Headshot Snack

Getting my headshots done today!

With any luck, they'll turn out like this:

Button Snack

So Scoville wanted me to find out more about that Button Factory song because he was too lazy to do it himself. You know that song? It's like "Hello, my name is Joe and I work at a Button Factory." You probably learned it in like second grade during that weird art/music/p.e. period that may or may not have occurred before morning recess (Shout out to you, Booker T. Washington Elementary!! What up, Principal Hamilton?!?!). Or at Girl Scout camp, around a giant bonfire or in the mess hall right before each Troop showed their weird skits and probably after we all made those American Flags out of red, clear, and blue beads.

I guess some people named Peter and Ellen Allard wrote it. It's available on a website, to download! People, Teachers, and Summer Camps use it for teaching. I know this because it is listed on such dynamite databases as "ultimatecampresource.com" and "songsforteaching.com."

These Are The Lyrics

As you can see, the song conducts one singular revolution of the appendages. Its syncopated rhythm implies blah blah blah analysis blah.

Here is a link to listen to the song

I am a big fan of buttons. I used to collect them when I found them in the street, on the playground, on the floor at Fiesta Mall. I would buy weird ones at the craft store shaped like ducks or trains. Then I strung a bunch of them up on a string and hung it over the window in my room.

This was the beginning of my penchant for collecting odd knickknacks.

Some of the things I have found and kept recently
-A hologrammed Happy Feet bookmark (on the stairs of the subway)
-A weird old round-dial pay phone (cleaning out the Robert Moss nee Linhart Theater)
-An old watch I used to play with as a kid (a pouch under my bed during the neverending organization of the random shit in my room)

I think I would like to work in a Button Factory.

Online JournalSnack

I just rediscovered my OpenDiary from high school. WHOA. It's pretty rough to revisit! Also hilarious!

I have always been a fiend of the online journaling persuasion. I jumped from the OpenDiary (2001-2005? Okay so apparently I wrote an entry or two in college. Woof.) to a blog entitled "It's a Great Day for Baseball," (2002-2006) which still has a URL but for some reason you cannot see any of the backlogged entries. And then I went from that into livejournal (2003-2009), which still very much exists, although I don't write in it very much at all.

I wish I remembered some of those passwords! I want to like bring all of the private and public entries together and bind them into a book to give my hormonal teenage daughter as proof that she's not, nor ever was, the Only One Who Feels This Way.

And No, I will not provide links to you.

(me and my brother circa 2004, eating at P.F. Chang's)

Black Canyon Snackies

Things:

-an old tonic bottle
-a phonograph
-some twiney webs
-a rocking chair
-a cake
-a corncob pipe
-candles
-a lock box

A dream song:

Sunil Snack

A recent text war between myself and my friend Sunil

Sunil: fred astaire.

Jaclyn: “Cant sing. Cant act. Can dance a little.”

Sunil: triple threat.

Jaclyn: Triple X.

Sunil: triple h.

Jaclyn: Big Ed’s Gas Farm.

Sunil: coldfoot, ak.

Jaclyn: Harry and the Hendersons

Sunil: joan jett.

Jaclyn: Blues traveler

Sunil: the original house of blues.

Jaclyn: House on haunted hill.

Sunil: cbgb omfug.

Jaclyn: U g l y u aint got no alibi u ugly. Yeah yeah u ugly.

Sunil: cousins on maternal side.

Jaclyn: Aka browntown

Sunil: from downtown!

Jaclyn: Clowntown, CA

Sunil: you’re gonna die, clown!

Jaclyn: How now, brown clow?

Sunil: the secret of nimh.

Jaclyn: The great mouse detective

Sunil: the great steak escape.

Jaclyn: Escape to witch mountain

Sunil: it takes two.

Jaclyn: Sydney Carton

Sunil: it’s a far, far better thing that i do than i have ever done. It’s a
far, far better rest that i go to than  I have ever known.

Jaclyn: So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly
into the past

Sunil: non-fat foods.

Opening Thursday Snack

visit http://thecentrifugeny.blogspot.com for Ticket information.

Ouch Snack

I fell down some stairs last night. It HURT! They were subway stairs leading from one track to another. I thought I was going to die. Luckily, I just have bruis-ed buttocks. I probs look like the girls in Sir Mix-A-Lot's Photoshop.

I googled "stairs" and I found these:



Designed by Gabriella Gustafson and Mattias Ståhlbom for TAF. Found on Freshome.com

The Format Snack

One of my favorite bands from high school, The Format, broke up a year ago. It was a two-man band from my hometown, and I've seen them play everywhere from the now-defunct Nita's Hideaway (which I passed on the road the other day, it's like rubble) to the tiny closet space known as Modified to bigger, New Yorky venues like Irving Plaza and Webster Hall. I stumbled upon a link to this guy's blog, this guy who was The Format's manager, and it was interesting to see how the dynamic of the band shifted, their struggle to make it in any sense, what the two of them are up to now.

I still listen to their songs. I think they captured an essence of my Southwestern coming-of-age that I needed to carry with me on my trip cross-country when I was 18. They may be on to bigger or more meaningful things, but those songs will always be Phoenix to me.

The video below is from one of their Flagstaff shows in early 2004.



fotografia from freshpeel.com

Goggle Snack

I started my screenplay today. Oversized aviation goggles are paramount to its success.

Trying to Google "goggles" is a funny action. Googling Goggles.

Scoville Snack

Andrew Scoville says that our blogs are at war. That's funny, Andrew Scoville. I don't remember why we're at war, but why does any war begin? No one remembers by the end of them.

The only war I can remember the beginning of was World War I, which began with The Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. He was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Leaving Las VegaSnack

I used to write a lot of poetry.

Now it's two years later

and I'm stuck on a plane

with some schoolmarmy flight attendants,

a dude from Vassar on my left flank,

a chick from Bard on my right,

a hacking cough, Claritin notwithstanding,

and some Rilke.

They put us in a hangar

to dry the ice off our wings

so we left two hours late.

I have no way out of Vegas,

which some would deem no awful thing.

Maybe I'll stay at the Excalibur

and walk around and take pictures

or collect porn advertisements

for my yet-to-be-titled poen scrapbook.

Maybe I'll rent a car

and be slightly afraid as I venture,

alone,

across the Hoover dam

into the darkness and subsequent light.

The future holds so much potential.

The world is full of possibility.

-scribbled last Saturday, on a plane (eventually) headed home for the holidays.