Translators and Super Sleuths

Can you translate the following?




We have a guest book at ImprovAcadia and someone filled it out in Arabic.

Solve the mystery!

Firsts and Lasts

Today a few different things happened.

1) I went for a run.
2) I went for a drive and took photos.
3) Declan's last day at the theater...possibly.

1) So I got up to 35 minutes, then ran 28 and 30 the next two times. Today I was determined to get to 35 again if not 40. I started out...the first hill I always come to didn't seem to give me trouble. Got to the track and ran 6 laps...I was going for 16...I got bored. So after 6 laps I go exploring. I end up on a road that runs along side of a lake...a road I recognize from a bike ride Deanna and I went on last year (PS. I've been on my bike twice since getting here. I don't think Deanna has been on at all yet. Guess this year was for hiking and jogging). I decide I'll turn around once I hear B.O.B. by Outkast. When all is said and done, today I jogged for 49 minutes 25 seconds...roughly 4.5 miles. An all time record for myself.

2) After I showered and ate I hit the road to take some photos. I went back towards Belfast and ended up stopping at Fort Knox. You can see some pics at the Daily Photo link right over there *points towards 'Blog Links'*.

3) Declan will be out of town next weekend. He'll be visiting his brother in college. He was around a lot last year (because we were there when school was out). This year he's only been around on Saturdays. This is him:

VidBit

Here's a video I found online that I have watched more than once...it's catchy.

It is Thomas F. Wilson who played Biff in Back to the Future...and a song about his life after the movie.

Is the Hike Half Empty?

It was everyone's day off again. Deanna wanted to go on a hike and I wanted to get out of the house and be warm. I was a little stiff from running yesterday...28 minutes, but on streets with hills, and I didn't have my music to focus on (the iPod was charging).

Deanna went hiking by herself last week and wanted to take me to the same area. We were going to go 4.2 miles. So we drove out and set off hiking up Acadia Mountain.

We made it! I was pretty tired though and we had only gone about 1.2 miles. I asked where else we were going to go and Deanna pointed way over to another mountain top...which meant going down then back up again. But she said it was an easier trail over there.

Keep in mind, we had also planned to grocery shop today...because we were out of food...which meant the only thing I had eatten that day was a Cliff bar while we hiked up to the top of Acadia. So, I wasn't looking forward to 3 more miles of hiking, but I was a sport and we carried on.

The next mountain was St. Sauveur. I was happy to be there as you can probably tell.

I have to admit...and Deanna does too (she has no choice because I'm typing) that I was pretty positive. I was pesimistic, but positive. As we were walking and I was saying how it would be great if the trail was shorter and we were done with the hike, she said in a very nice tone "Well, aren't you mister glass-half-empty?" I replied, "Oh, it's more than half empty, and most of it is backwash...but the cup is pretty cool!" Positive pesimism.

Last year was a different story...I was no treat to be around. There were also more bugs...and I hate bugs. I'd last all the way on Survivor...if there were no bugs.

I have no idea where we were for this pic. On our way back.

We probably left around 1:00pm to go hike, got there around 2:00, finished around 4:30. We stopped and got Subway on the way back, and then headed back into town. We made it less than half way back when traffic stopped. The picture above is the line of traffic after about an hour of inching forward. I guess there was an accident (or an "on purpose"). That traffic signal is at a fork in the road with a not so main road as well. As an added bonus, the light for our road wasn't turning green anymore. The little road was to our left, so when there light was green, two cars from our road would run the red light and get out with enough space for the other cars to go around. I think we got home around 8:00.

What did we do to kill time on the drive? Memorized the capitals to the 50 states...I'm going to try and remember them all right now:

Alabama: Montgomery
Alaska: Juno
Arkansas: Little Rock
Arizona: Phoenix
California: Sacramento
Colorado: Denver
Connecticut: Hartford
Deleware: Dover
Florida: Tallahasee
Georgia: Atlanta
Hawaii: Honolulu
Idaho: Boise
Illinois: Springfield
Indiana: Indianapolis
Iowa: Des Moines
Kansas: Topeka
Kentucky: Frankfurt (Chicken!)
Louisiana: Baton Rouge
Maine: Augusta
Maryland: Anapolis
Massachusetts: Boston
Michigan: Lansing
Minnesota: St. Paul
Mississippi: Jackson
Missouri: Jefferson City
Montana: Helena
Nebraska: Lincoln
Nevada: Carson City
New Hampshire: Concord
New Jersey: Trenton
New Mexico: Santa Fe
New York: **Albany
North Carolina: Raleigh
North Dakota: Bismark
Ohio: Columbus
Oklahoma: Oklahoma City
Oregon: Salem
Pennsylvannia: Harrisburg
Rhode Island: Providence
South Carolina: Columbia
South Dakota: Pierre
Tennessee: Nashville
Texas: Austin
Utah: Salt Lake City
Vermont: Mon Pelliar (or something like that)
Virgina: Richmond
Washington: Olympia
West Virginia: **
Wisconsin: Madison
Wyoming: Cheyenne

I got them all pretty quick as I typed them...and I only needed help remembering 4 of the 50 states when I was making that list. I only had trouble remembering New Mexico's captial, New York's and West Virginia's. West Virginia's is Charleston, I didn't put it in the list because I had to look it up.

I learned them by Deanna reading them from an atlas while I drove/sat behind the wheel in stopped traffic...so I don't know if all of the spelling is correct.

I must have a 5th or 6th grade education now!

Hey...BlackBerry Gang...

If you're a BlackBerry user...or more specifically, Rich, Mary, Robyn, or Deanna...guess what?

I passed all of the levels on Brick Breaker! All 34 of them. My high score before that was 16505. I had made it to level 33 of 34 and lost my last life from stupidity. But tonight...just now...I did it. And with 6 lives left.

Once you pass the final level you start back at level 1...but it gets faster sooner.

New High Score: 25455.

'Ja Feel That?

It's not love...not magic...THAT, friends, is an EARTHQUAKE!

Tonight Larrance and Jen were back and we were doing a special Community Well show...where the second half is long form inspired by a guest.

We got ready, warmed up, and took the stage. Our very first game was Scene Tag. For this game each pairing of people gets a suggestion and the last line of dialogue from one pairing becomes the first line for the next. Suggestion getting went as follows:

JEN: For Mike and Deanna I need an occupation.
AUD: Hairstylist!
JEN: Great, hairstylist. Thanks. For Deanna and myself I need a country in Europe.
AUD: Holland!
JEN: Oooooo! Holland. Thank you very much. For Rance and I, how about a period in time.
AUD: Rennis...*EARTHQUAKE*

Right there before we even started playing the first game. Earthquake. It was short and sweet. It felt to me like a truck hit the building mildly. It started and stopped so soon that everyone was just aware enough to be chatty. It kind of threw us off for the night. Our scenes were good, but we were on edge.

There was an earthquake on Friday too. Something is brewing in Bar Harbor.

Mike and Jen were in the second game, Playwright, and they had the suggestion of "Earthquake". They were earthquake researchers.

I felt fine after the quake. It was minimal. During Playwright Deanna leaned over and whispered that she was on edge. I mentioned that I was fine...and then Larrance played some weird sound effects on the piano that sounded like an earthquake (for the scene) that made both Deanna and I jump. So, I wasn't totally fine.

So I've now done a show in an earthquake. Triple threat!

Ladies and Gentleman...

(from my iO team, Johnny Roast Beef)
Bill Saveley :



Katie Nahnsen:




Ed Illades:

Run Around

Today I went to the track to run. I normally start jogging half of the way there, but I wanted to check my actual distance. I decided I would run 4 miles. I made a new running playlist on my ipod and knew B.O.B. by Outkast should pop in around 40 minutes.

It showed up and ended halfway through mile 3. Then my ipod stopped...which it has been doing lately. I kept going and it took almost an entire lap to restart. I stopped at 3 miles.

I left my watch and water on the side of the track. I knew if I wore my watch I would check it too frequently. I stopped at 3 miles...12 laps...and checked my watch...28 minutes and something seconds. I could have done more.

Nice to know I can run 3 miles though.

Bat Fancy

Technology is upon us, friends. If you are my mom, dad, aunt, Declan, Erin C., or Deanna you may notice a change in scenery. The blog I use had new software available and my normal template didn't look good in it. So, I changed to this. In the next week or so there should be a banner at the bottom for my photography. Huzzah!

In other news, when we arrived at the theater today Jen and Larrance warned us to not move a little garbage can that was by the door...there was a bat behind it and they didn't want it to fly into the theater.

This little dude didn't care for flash photography and started squeaking a little after his glamour shot.

Larrance and Jen left town after the show tonight and Deanna, Mike and I will be running things by ourselves tomorrow. Should be fun. More on that later?

Story, Story, Love?

(Disclaimer: the views and opinions of Rance Rizzutto do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of ImprovAcadia...just in case)

Today there was a rally in Bangor. It was called a war rally, but it seems like it should have been called a peace rally. Anywho, we were asked to perform for 10 minutes. Easy enough.

We all hopped in Shreeman's Jimmy. It seemed like it would hold five people comfortably, but Larrance begged to differ.

Here is one of two drums that you could hear punctuating anything that was said on the stage. "We need to get the soldiers out of Iraq!" *BOOM BOOM BOOM*

We got there around 12:30 and it was set to start at 1:00. There we a lot of signs on the ground for people to use/wear.

These women had created what appeared to be a ghost or a Klan member, it turns out it's a dove...of peace. You know the one. The one that eats the branches? That one.

Not only were people making signs, but they were making costumes as well.

I wish I would have talked to this kid to ask why he was here...just to see if he knew or if a parent had brought him with.

And no rally, no matter the cause, is complete without...umm...a monkey on stilts?

This is the "BRING HOME THEM" stage we performed on. Now, for more of the story...

Let me start off by saying I'm all for getting the soldiers back and I cannot wait until 2008 when we can pick us up from this shitty Bush era and dust ourselves off. But...a Bangor peace/war rally? Is that going to end it? I've never been a part of one of these before...maybe they had more merit in the 60s/70s...but this seemed mostly like an excuse for everyone to do arts and crafts, put on costumes, and do some wishful thinking.

Once the women who were emcee-ing this rally took the stage, one of the first things said was "this is a peaceful protest. If we get any hecklers, just ignore them." The very first speaker then said "WE SHOULD ALL BE ANGRY!" and proceded to teach two chants that would be used instead of applause after each speaker. This made one of the guys there angry, but because we were told to be angry.

Here (above) is the guy talking to the two emcees. Deanna overheard some of the conversation...something like
"this should be a peaceful demonstration, not anger."
"I'm sorry you feel that way."
"Well you need to do something about it! Tell them not to solve things with anger!"
"Aren't you trying to solve THIS with anger?"

BURN!

Here are the peaceful ladies (Deanna was listening to the guy and the emcees...Jen was posing for the pic).

I'm not sure what Shreeman is looking at...probably a cute girl nearby.

PEACE!

And here is the view from stage. We did a madrigal...where each person gets a phrase of some sort and sings it. As we keep going through our phrases change by combining in words from the other people's phrases. I think the three starting phrases supplied by the crowd were "Get Rid of the Evildoer." "Don't eat where you shoot." and "Love Thy Neighbor."

We ended on "Shoot the Evildoer" which the crowd loved...except for that one guy who told us as we were getting off the stage, "I can't participate in this if this is how things are going to be." He got into more of a discussion about it with Deanna, but I'll let her put that in her blog.

Run Forrest Run!

I went running today. I've been going once every three days. I'm upto about 35 minutes now...probably 3 miles. This beats my previous lifetime max of 20 minutes when I was taking Tae Kwon Do long ago.

My normal routine is walk about three minutes to School street, turn right and jog. It is an immediate up hill, then down, through the the YMCA parking lot, through the Mill Mall parking lot, up the stairs to the track. Then I run until I have one song left and jog back to that song, which usually gets me almost back to where I started jogging from.

Today I cut left on some road that took me to the same school track. I got about 5 laps in when a fire truck pulled up...and then an ambulance. A guy climbed the small fence and stopped me to let me know Life Flight would be landing in the soccer field that the track surrounded.

I was kicked of the track. I jogged back and forth around the road until I watch the helicopter land. I didn't see what happened from there.

But, I'm up to 35 minutes! Friday I'm going to walk all the way to the track and see how many laps I can do. I'm going to try to just do four miles and not focus on time...I might even try for my overall goal of five miles.

Day Off

Deanna and I were going to go hiking today, but I wasn't feeling well. I stayed in town while she went for the hike. I DID have her drop me off at Strawberries on her way in. Strawberries is the Maine equal to Sam Goody's or Coconuts. I purchased Weird Al Yankovic's "Straight Outta Lynwood." The first tape I went to the store and bought myself was his "In 3-D" cassette. I am pretty sure I have all of his stuff on CD except for his greatest hits stuff...because I have all of those songs. We even created a character at outdoor school (the camp I used to work at) based on his song "Harvey the Wonder Hamster". It was a short song, so we would play it during meals and Harvey would come out to deliver some important message like use manners or don't waste food.

The new album is pretty good. I like Pancreas, Trapped in the Drive Thru, and:



Other than that I spent the day doing laundry and writing sketches.

Once Deanna got home we headed into town to watch "Little Miss Sunshine" at Reel Pizza. We've been dying to see this movie and it was well warranted. The characters were all great. You should definitely see this movie. The cool thing about Reel Pizza is each row of movie seats has a little counter in front of it. You order pizza, they give you a number, when it's ready, your number flashes on a bingo board on the wall. Grab your grub and put it on the counter in front of you. The counter is double cool because it provides extra legroom.

CANDLE PIN BOWLING!

We all decided to candle pin bowl. I remember Larrance and Jen mentioning it last year, but we never went. Not the case this year. Candle pin bowling is a little different than regular bowling. The pins are straight (some would say candle-shaped), the ball is like a skeeball but just a little bigger, you get three bowls instead of two, and the pins don't clear until you've bowled all three...so you can use fallen pins to your advantage. We called this "using your wood."

I did alright in the first game and I think I barely nudged ahead of Deanna in the second game. It was fun all around.

Larrance had a faulty shoe and totally tripped at one point. Since he was the first to bowl we all tripped in that frame.

On two separate occasions I had knocked a pin into the gutter, and they bowled so hard toward that pin that my ball came rolling back toward us. It never made it all the way though.

I recommend Candle pin bowling to anyone.

Poe

Last night we played the game Replay in a show. Deanna was hosting. In Replay we do a quick scene and then replay it with 3 different styles. So, after the initial scene, Deanna went out to get the styles:

Deanna: can I get a movie genre, please?
AUD: Footloose...uh...80's Dance
Deanna: 80's Dance, ok. And how about a literary style?
AUD: Poe
Deanna: Great, William Edgar Poe. And a musical style?
AUD: Cha-cha.
Deanna: Excellent. We will start with 80's Dance.

Everyone heard her say "William Edgar Poe"...and everyone sort paused as if saying, "huh?"

I only hoped she would say it again.

After we replayed the scene in 80's dance:
Deanna: We will now see the seen done in the style of William Edgar...Poe...is that right?
AUD: Edgar Allen Poe
Rance: Let's do William Edgar Poe!

We then made as many near references to EAP as we could, but with the different twists WEP would have used...a Parrot instead of a Raven, Vivian instead of Lenore, etc.

Deanna blames it on age. In her defense...sort of...we both got the suggestion of Messopotamian as an era and basically did a scene about cavemen inventing the wheel. We're well learn'ed.

Sluiceway: Hike of HORRRRRORRRRRR!

Thursday I went jogging for nearly 30 minutes(29:45...I got by song length and that's what it ended up being once I checked on my return)...a 10 minute jump. So Friday was a hike day.

We had already hit the main trails we've (I've) heard of, so it was off into new territory. Jen recommended Sluiceway. She had never been on it but said Megan liked it a lot when she was out here.

Sluiceway was pretty much all forested. It isn't necessarily a popular trail, so we were the only car out there, and the only people. Since it was so forested the trail had a lot of roots. It was a fairly steep climb. The pic above is standing on the trail looking straight forward. The pic below is the same place, but looking up the trail. I don't think they convey the steepness. Since the trail was so filled with roots the trail had a softness and a drum like sound as we walked. Just as I was thinking that, I heard a drum like sound that wasn't matching our stride...then I heard breath with it.

The little angel below scared the crap out of us. Luckily, she was friendly. She stopped by us once, then ran back. Then came back again (when I had the composure to take a photo). She was with a lady who lived on the island and was hiking her own trail. They passed us and we carried on.

We were both in the mood for a mellow hike and this one was somewhere above mellow. But we finally made it to one of the destinations on our trail...Little Notch. This was the first hiking location we made it to with no view (notice the trees everywhere behind the sign).

Luckily the next part of our hike would take us to the Bernard Mt. Overlook.

Where we also found this stranger.

seven8nine

Deanna and I are in a group that is putting together video sketches. We just started production right before Deanna and I left, so it will be a little while until we're actually in one...BUT, the following is our first video...and it was actually Deanna's idea!

Belfast/Brunswick

Today was the first community day off...meaning, we all get the same day off. We all decided to go into a town called Belfast. It is in a direction that I haven't been before so everything was new. For whatever reason or reasons, I was a little pissy. I still am today, but I tried to shake it while we were there...usually unsuccessfully. I don't think I'm meant to hang on shopping trips with the ladies. The town was quaint. The town's specialty? Crappy things to get your picture taken by. It was one of the times I regretted having my camera. First we passed a crappy mini cooper car that Jen and Deanna wanted their picture taken in. I realized the sooner I took the picture the sooner I'd be past it.

We stopped in a game store and I bought a couple board games that I hope I'll play someday...they looked cool. If I remember correctly they're called Pirateer and Settlers of the Catan...oh, and new cards for PIT (cocoa, gas, platinum, etc. instead of wheat, oats, barley...).

Settlers has some expansions that I might get if I like the game. The whole reason I even looked at the game was because they had a super fancy version in a wooden box that was very spendy (TD!).

From there I went down to the docks to take pics (see photo blog) while Deanna and Jen shopped. While I was walking I saw another cut out thing and was glad I was by myself.

I met up with Deanna and Jen again and we walked to a foot bridge...unfortunately we passed more cut outs and Deanna wanted a picture with me. I don't know why I hate these things so much, but they drive me crazy and they should all be destroyed.

I'm no dead head, but I think these are those bears.

The thing that cheered me up the most while we were in town was going to eat...and not because of the food. We went into this bar/pub to eat. They had that trivia thing and each table had one box. I got boxes for all three of us and we started playing buzztime trivia. A couple of regulars had started playing too, but they were talking to each other. You get to enter a name for the game. Jen was "Mikos", Deanna was "Dee", and I was "Terd". I was winning and once I won the entire match, the screen said "Congradulations to the winner Terd!" This overweight lady who was with her husband (who was playing trivia) laughed hard when she read that. The husband said, "Alright! Who is that?! Who's Terd!?" I told him it was my initials.

Everytime I get on the computer I check people's blogs. Here are my Cheers and Jeers:

Cheers to : Eric for multiple updates; Arnie and Sarah for pics and frequency; Emily for mentioning me

Jeers to: Savedigger...it's almost been two months, lets get in the game!

There are a lot of books in this house and I noticed one on the 18th that I had been meaning to read: Guru by Jeff Griggs. Jeff was out here earlier in the season, and he was sort of my level 3 teacher at iO. I say sort of because I had a different teacher, had to sub for a class I missed and went to Jeff's class, I liked Jeff better as a teacher and just kept subbing.

Guru is about Jeff's experiences with Del Close. Del Close is pretty much the father of longform improv. Jeff was hired by Charna to sort of be Del's assistant...take him weekly to the bank, grocery store, where ever he needed to go. I couldn't put this book down and I actually cried at the end. Jeff, kudos! One of my regrets is that by the time I moved to Chicago, Del Close had already passed away. The nice thing about Jeff's book is that it told great stories, but also, I felt like I either learned more about improv, or was reminded of things I had forgotten.

If you're an improvisor, and you haven't read it, you should.

Boat Co?

Second City has a few groups of people out on cruise ships. This is one of those ships. I think this is the last time the ship will be coming to Bar Harbor for a while...and I think they just got new cast members. Have a good voyage!

Meanwhile...in Chicago...

David sent me this. It's a picture of the side of the CCPA on Chicago and Halsted...that's me on that 14ft tall poster...or maybe 40ft. They both sound alike. If you're in Chicago and see it, please post with the height.

Back in Maine...

Deanna is still suffering from her cold. I still don't have it. Katie posted her second joke in a comment in the last post, so see that there.

Tonight was our second night with just the three of us. It's fun. AND we're working our asses off. If I'm not an improv powerhouse when I get back to Chicago then I'll focus on photography. It's hard NOT to get good at improv when you do it 6 days a week.

Today after we warmed up, and before the first show we watched an older lady try to park a car that was perfectly parked for about 5 minutes. She had it. The car was set. But for some reason she kept backing up and going forward...trying to get closer and closer to the curb. Her husband or man-partner even got out to help her. From our vantage point we could easily tell she was already closer to the curb than the cars in front and in back of her. It drove me crazy to watch.

In our 8:00 show I had to get a suggestion of a saying on a bumper sticker. A couple from Yorkshire, England said, "Gruhdub, blantehmehn." I naturally replied, "huh?" The guy repeated it the same, then his wife helped him by...repeating it the same. Jen understood a little better...enough to get me to figure it out: "Grow dope, plant a man."

We've added long form into the second half...something we hadn't been doing for the first couple of weeks. Double fun on those.

When you host a show here you're responsible for the opening spiel and the closing spiel. Part of the closing spiel is reminding everyone to tip the server/bartender. I always say "Let's give a hand to Porche your server! She appreciates your applause but more than that she appreciates your gratuity. She uses her tip money for crazy things like food and rent (every host ever uses this)...and, if you're visiting from out of town, standard gratuity in the states is 75%." That last part kills...but that isn't why I write. Porche said the couple from England (a country well known for lack of tipping) gave her a 70% tip! I got 'em!

Tomorrow is the first full day off. Everyone normally rotates the day they get off (except Larrance who gets 7/4 as his one day off). Now that the season is slowing, and we have three performers, Tuesday is a day off for everyone. This means we all get to spend time with each other instead of one person waiting at home for everyone to return. Larrance is flying out early to visit his mother. Jen, Deanna and I are going to a city I can't remember the name of because we've been saying we're going to Brunswick as a bit. Basically it's a hip little town with a foot bridge, a game store, and a co-op. Those are the parts I remember.

Right now, for some reason, it smells like cat food.

And then there were three...and Larrance

Last night we had the final two shows with Rex and Katie. It was great getting to hang out with them. Rex got to get killed by a cougar that had integrated with a computer, and Katie (who has surprisingly strong upperbody strength) got to make her final 185 jokes that only she could do.

When we first got here in Maine, Jen was sick. These past few days, Rex, Katie, and Deanna have been sick. I normally get sick quickly and keep it for awhile, but I've been on a huge Vitamin C kick (around 3000-4000mg in a day), plus I've been exercising (jogging 3 times a week and I'm up to 20 minutes!). I haven't even had the beginning signs of a cold yet. Also, I pretty much eat a bowl of chili a day, so that could be helping too.

In honor of Katie, I now present to you her two patented jokes:

#1:
Bob and Bill, a couple of buddies, go out Moose hunting. Bob has been before and Bill hasn't. Bob says "I'm going to go to higher ground, you stay around this level." Bill, eager to bag his first Moose agrees. Bob finds a good tree and climbs up to get a better look. Bill is anxious and looking around for Moose when he spots one! Up in a tree! Bob sees Bill pointing the gun at him and starts waving his hands and says, "don't shoot! I'm not a moose!" Bill shoots and hits Bob. Bob falls out of the tree to the ground. Bill, excited, goes over to see his kill only to find Bob nearly dead. Bob says, "why did you do that? I said, 'don't shoot! I'm not a moose!'" And Bill said, "I thought you said you WERE a moose!"

#2:
Crap...I can't remember her other joke. Hopefully I'll remember it later.