Tuesday, August 21, 2007

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

I’ve got to apologize for spending all summer AWOL from this blog. As of today, I’m turning over a new leaf: I’m going to post every day this upcoming week. There’s plenty to talk about. Since I last posted:

-- I went to Vienna to see my good pal Becky Yamamoto stahhhrrrring in Young Jean Lee’s absolutely brilliant play Song of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, followed by a night on the town: Korean food, Karaoke, and Currywurst. Sweet!

-- Rick and I visited Belgrade: Kalmedgan Fortress, the Tesla Museum, houseboat clubs, burek pastries (mmmm), a rock show (Pere Ubu) for poor rock-starved Rick…


-- In a moment of panic, signed a new lease until December 2007. Decided after the fact it was a good idea. Plans for the future: applying for MFA dramatic writing programs for next school year. Program suggestions? Anyone? Don’t say Brooklyn College because I already know about that.

-- Rick’s parents visited!

-- My mom and sister visited!



-- Spain with Mom and Bip.


-- France with Mom and Bip.


-- My mom (poor mom!) broke her leg here in France...

... while Bip and I were looking at this in Spain:

...chaos ensued. But she's getting better, don't worry...


-- My godfather Goheen and his friend Ljaquida visited. Awful heat made it necessary to repair to the waterslides on Margaret Island.

-- Horrendous Heatwave. Rick finally came swimming!

-- In about a month and a half, Rick and I penned books on NASCAR’s Most Victorious Cars, NASCAR’s Greatest Moments, Digital Sampling and Remixing, American Idol Taylor Hicks, Fingerprinting and Trace Analysis...I feel like I must be forgetting something. Oh yeah, opera articles. Poor Rick didn’t take a single day off for three months! Hot and overworked, I got majorly depressed. The one time I made contact with the outside world, I got in a horrible fight (completely my fault) with one of my most treasured friends. It is still keeping me up at night.

-- But somehow I did get some of my own writing done—detailed skeleton for an 8-episode podcast play series and plans for a site-specific NYC-Budapest theater collaboration with pals.

-- Played at a bluegrass festival in southern Hungary. My band is listed on the t-shirt, y’all!


-- A certain scientist who goes by the initials JGS came to visit. We brought a contingent of Americans—all from our old college, weirdly, although none of us were close back then—to Serbia.


-- In Serbia, we went to the Golden Brass Festival in Guca.


-- Back to Budapest just in time for St. Istvan’s Day. (Remember last year?) Against all odds, Hungary’s first Saint-King, still pissed about his handless corpse, deluged the city with yet another mighty storm! Even more incredibly, we realized we’ve officially been living here a year now. We have great Hungarian and expat friends, more work than we know what to do with (though still not enough money), and we can count to 100 in Hungarian. You can’t say fairer than that.

6 comments:

Kj said...

recomendation: check out if Paula Vogel is still on staff at Brown/Trinity Rep's program. can't say how pro the program in general I am, but I am very pro Paula Vogel as mentor/instructor. she's an outstanding teacher and is very hands on, and i love what she writes about and how.

Justk said...

Alas, I am satiated! And don't tease, I will hold you to your promise of "every day this week!"

K

Jessamyn Harris said...

'-- Spain with Mom and Bip.'

is that also a freaky Michael Jackson in there that I see?!

I hope your mom feels better.

And... it disturbs me to see what you are writing about, and therefore what the kids want to read, in those books. Nascar, American Idol, and Forensics?!

Ganch said...

Jessamyn: not only is it Michael Jackson, it is a marzipan Michael Jackson. Don't worry, more on that later this week!

Emily said...

OK: not to harp on what is the least significant part of this post, but: What does a sister have to do to get hooked up with another Rosen book? Seriously! I have been writing emotionally needy e-mails off and on for months, but I feel like it has gone TOO FAR. Any advice?

DYLAN! said...

As a party to some of said awesomeness, I can say without a doubt...it was awesome.