A Sign of The Times

A Sign of The Times
by snoweyes.

So, I've had quite a week! I took the time to go looking for a car this last week and found one I ended up buying for 1500. 1996 Ford Contour. Not a bad price that day.

Samantha and Jes came back from their extended east coast road trip Wednesday evening just before the show. I was extremely happy to have the house full of people again! I missed Sambo. That night we weould hang out and have fun. However, on the way home, my car broke down.

The next day my car had trouble starting and it died on the road on the way back from the show. The next day it was towed to a local mechanic before all of us went to fabulous Silver Dollar City. Once we got to SDC, I got a call from the mechanic and the prognisis was pretty good; it ran out of gas! My gas gauge was simply a little off the mark and it ran out of gas, so I could pick it up when I had free time. That was a relief...at the time.

Today Sam and I got up, said our goodbyes to Jes and Brian (who got here once I was in Pan) and went to the mechanic to pick up the car. We would bring Sam's car and later would take my new car for sushi once we recovered it; that was the plan anyway!

So, I got the car and start towards a gas station so I don't repeat the fun of yesterday. I had to drive about a mile to get gas. About thirty yards before I get there, my windsheild wiper turned on randomly, stopped, my dash lights went on and my engine stopped cold. Fortunately I was able to coast all the way into that gas station. Not so fortunate was I when I came to a full stop.

Black, thick smoke started to come out from under the hood and I knew this couldn't be good. I flipped the hood release as fast as I could and lifted up the hood. I was expecting my radiator to be spewing onto my engine or something like that. I didn't expect flames.

Flames! Flames! In my engine!

Some people freak out when calamity occurs, but I just enter the Matrix ad get super-focused. Everything slows down. I've avoided many wrecks and gotten help to people very quickly thanks to this weird and very handy brain thing I do.

So when this happened, the flames lasted about four seconds. In that time I whipped around to the gas pump and grabbed the liquid reservoir used for those little squeegees when folks get bugs on their windshields. I ripped that thing right out. I made like a boyscout and put out that fire! I was outside myself, amazed that my car was on fire and that I was doing so well. My engine smelt like burnt plastic.

One of those Ride The Ducks vehicles drove by. I smiled and waved. How silly it all was. I called Sam and we, yet again, had my car towed to the mechanic.

Fortunately I still have my trusty (and old) Maxima, so I'm not stranded in Branson. I'm not happy with my "new" car so far. But let's all throw good karma at my burnt wires and hope for the best and cheapest repairs, shall we? As long as I'm not starving and I've got a house I'm not in too bad of a situation. I'm just not the kind to get too flustered by fate. Something good will happen from this.

There were only thirty reservations for today's 3p.m. Pan but a nicely sized audience in the hundreds came in by the time our show started. I'm surprised anyone even showed up on a holiday and yet the crowd was very happy and enjoyed our program. After all of that, Sam and I had a lovely picnic by Tanycomo. It was very relaxing and I'm all charged up for another show that's happening...very soon!

In other news, I've got really grrrrreat news! Sambo is getting me the cooooolest present in the world. Tickets to France! Incredible!

The Dogpatch Adventure

The Dogpatch Adventure
by snoweyes.

Those who enjoy abandoned places should enjoy this album from one of my little adventures. Dogpatch USA has a rich and storied past. It began in the late 60s to support the fantastically popular comic strip Lil Abner. Thanks to some terrible business desicions and the fact that no one remembers the stip anymore, the 800-acre park was closed in 1993 and is now slowly rotting away in the hills of the Ozarks. At one time the park had a chance to be as popular as Silver Dollar City.

When I was a kid (about 4) I remember going and greatly enjoying myself at the fish hatchery and cave. Do you remember Dogpatch?

This is from a daytrip June 22, 2009. I've been before. My first time to visit Dogpatch was about four years ago and I love the place!

I should note that it's much, much harder to get onto the property these days as opposed to when I first visited. In the years that followed my first visit, word of the place spread onto the internet and too many people were vandalizing the place so things changed two years ago. There are roving security guards that take some of the fun out of trespassing, so this trip was legit.

I posted several pictures on flickr, but I left nearly 60 on my facebook.

A light snack

A light Snack
by snoweyes.

Yep, I'm eating Tomaters and Hummus again and feeling a bit artsy. I came up with a few ideas for my art in the next bit of time...

A short film using exclusively still photos and my accordion music pushing the visual poem.

I have been working on some new accordion songs and if I get the time I'll be recording them in the next week or two. If you haven't heard my little Cruccinelli sing, here's a taste.



I haven't written much in the last week, but I've been trying to keep busy with art outside of the time I work on Peter Pan. Notably I've got a desire to put up some paintings in Eureka Springs very soon and I've been putting time and effort into that! I hope to have some good news in that realm of art soon enough. Until then, please eat some tasty spicy hummus if you can find some.

I have uploaded a few pictures to my flickr, but if you can find my facebook I've got many new pictures, as usual. Why do I do this? Because flickr only shows my 200 most recent photos without plunking down 25 bucks and I; I am but a poor player set upon the stage of life, sent to bring a tear to the eye, a smile to the face, a Smee to the stage.....

I leave you with a short excerpt from a poem for no particular reason except to live life through young eyes!

Lying, swept upon dark cut grass
Stretched in repose beneath twilight
Ghosts of a thousand echoes remind
Her rose-covered ears of
childhood ne'er
forgot.

*snap snap

Pan's Bday

Pan's Bday
by snoweyes.

Hi friends! I'm in the midst of performing in our play (in intermission) but hey, it's a slow period so I'm writing you :)

The photo you see is a take on an album image of Beyonce called BDay. I had to take a few pictures to get the two crocs right since we only have one suit. It's goofy but fun!

Pan has been an incredible production so far. I'm about six shows in and we've had a great turnout each time.

The first show was filled with all the local celebrities, like Yakov, Tony Orlando and Andy Williams! I got the chance to talk to them all for a bit and they seemed to quite enjoy the performance. The second show was great as well.

The third show our fantastic Hook, played by Robert Westenberg (of had a bout of laryngitis, so our Starkey played by Tom Wolff got the chance to perform three shows (one night was a two-show night), so we all got the chance to be on our toes. He was great but I'm very happy to have Bob back in the driver's seat as Hook. He's incredible and his wife Kim Crosby is also in the show as Ms. Darling. Both Robert and Kim go deep into the history of Broadway musicals like Into The Woods, which Sam actually had a copy of so that's a little surreal to be working with such talented stage actors.

Speaking of talent, Cathy Rigby is Peter Pan! She's got so much energy in the part and I'm amazed to see her work every night. I'm always a bit in awe of watching everyone work so well and I'm simply happy to work doing something I love. Cathy is an avid collector of interesting pets; she brought a ferret to the show yesterday and it plays well with the dog she also got here a few weeks ago.

The shows continue to go well, I'll continue to take fun pictures of the show behind-the-scenes and update via facebook.

I bought a couch today and I broke myself moving it in, but at least I had help from the people I got it from. Shmoopy likes it and I think Sam is happy to sit in something more comfortable than those classic red chairs.

What else...we took some incredible pictures last week, only to have the memory card corrupt the images. I don't know if you've ever had to deal with that kind of thing, but I hate doing that! Fortunately I found some great software called MJM Free Photo Recovery. Look is up if your card gets corrupted. It found 99 percent of the 300 photos I took over the last week and it saved my sanity!

My brother Howard is visiting and watching Peter Pan here in Branson tonight. I get to have lunch or something tomorrow with him. And as a special treat I'll be coming out and signing autographs and greeting fans in my outfit tonight!

Oh and Samantha started up her own website, SamanthaWoodruff.com. It's just a little startup but I'll be doing something shiny and fancy soon. Stay tuned!

I hope everyone is well out there in internet land!

Self

Self
by snoweyes.

Tis time for another update from my little side of the Missouri/Okiehoma border!

So far, so good. Rehearsals are still churning along with one last intense week to go. Over the last few days we've moved from setting blocking to running tech for the next few days, which means our side of the show is pretty much set. I say pretty much because every rehearsal something new gets injected into our blocking, be it a hat gag or prop gag or little dance alteration or little injury, which will probably happen until the night of the show. Still, everything is coming together nicely and I'm confident that this show will rock your socks off!

I've also been taking some pictures of the show rehearsals and cast and I think you'll enjoy them. Click on the top picture to see my better flickr pictures, or go over to my facebook (look up my name) page for the whole lot! I'm adding more as the week comes.

In the last week I made the fun discovery of the usefulness of our check stub. As a performer I get all kinds of fun discounts or freebies in the area, and some of our freebies also include a guest! So if you are up sometime for a visit I might be able to share the wealth! I don't think I'll post exactly which freebies, but ask and I'll tell you :)

I haven't had many days off (two in as many weeks) but once we get the show going I will be happy to have the free time. I miss exploring and enjoying nature and adventures. On my last day Sam and I went to Springfield to watch a play and to have some fun downtown photo explorations. The old downtown is hot stuff and I think I'll be finding my way to the area often. I love old theatres, coffee houses and the like.

Our new dog Shmoopers is doing fairly well with training. He's a very energetic doggy with very long legs for his little size, which means he's a very good climber. We got one of those doggy gates and he simply scaled the thing! So much for keeping her in one place. Fortunately we also have one of those big puppy travelers so she can sleep in our room without smothering us with tongue.

My next day off is this Monday. Any ideas for fun?

I'm watching a stage play of waiting for godot. I'll tell you if it's good!

Boston, Buffalo. It's a dance move that, when practiced enough times becomes the very same place:) i had dinner that was delish!