But there were times

Two shows a day in Ottawa has whipped our ragtag outfit into...a smellier, wearier ragtag outfit that does two shows a day.

I kid.

As I had predicted, the show really is starting to run a lot better, now that we've only five shows left. We're actually watching tapes of recent shows now, making notes, constantly working to improve things.

Right now, we're watching Mossy work to fix her hair onstage. Mossy is a troll who has no arm movement, so she's jerking her head back and forth to fix it. Her hairpiece has since been re-pinned. Anyway, I think I did a valiant job of trying to disguise my problem. These are the things that happen daily. It keeps on our toes.

We're also realizing that there are at least a dozen parts of the script that make almost no sense. It's important that kids understand the way the world works, right? There are also four separate instances of characters taking off a mask to reveal another mask, and one on-stage head swap in a monster's mouth. Layers upon layers.

The local TV news came to a show, taped some footage and did an interview. Erminio showed us a tape of the TV playing the footage. Layers upon layers.

We've watched so many shows we can't tell that we've already seen this tape tonight. Glamorous.

I bought an ugly hat, but now I can tell people I bought it in Canada, and that gives it cred. I took a picture of myself wearing it in front of the Brown Loaf Bakery; a great spot to get baked goodies and my new name for my butt.

Why I Ottawa...

Well, we wrapped up Penticton with a show for our smallest audience yet, on Saturday when there were no school trips. I remember it as a Saturday, anyway.

Even though the house was only about a third full, we had one of our best shows of the tour, and got more laughs. On the weekends, the crowds are about half adults, instead of a smattering of teachers and chaperones amongst a myriad of crazy schoolchildren. Anyway, I think that proves that we have a few jokes flying over the kids' heads. References to product placement and Thelonius Monk probably go over some adult heads.

But it was a good time, on the last night we went to the local casino for the festival end bash. I've been to better, and the evening ended on a sour note when Meg realized her camera had flown from her possession at some point in our dance floor invasion.

A full day of travel left us in Ottawa late Sunday night. Yesterday was our first day off, not counting travel days and tech days, which definitely do not count as a day off.

So I woke up, walked around a mall, parliament and some other shopping destinations. Then I bugged Min for my Canadian cash a bit before noon, confirmed that I didn't have any obligations for the day, and headed out for the Canadian Museum of Civilization, or some such named place. It was a great place, but I couldn't help feeling ignorant about Canada. Almost everything was foreign to me; every name in the "Face to Face" exhibit was new. I guess that's the point of the museum.

Our rooms are apartment-style, with living rooms and kitchens, so I thought I would make some pasta tonight. That means I was going to boil water, add pasta, and cover it with a jar of sauce. I thought I'd invite a couple other people over, because we're all trying to save money. Food of all kinds is expensive here.

Now we're in Erminio's room, everyone is coming, I'm not cooking and the meal will be a lot more complex. And so it goes.

Afterwards we're finally going to watch a video of one of our shows, and see if we can make some more tweaks. We love to tweak.

I took some nice pictures of Ottawa, myself and my PBR, but I haven't posted them yet.

I yearn to be home, but I'm certainly on the home stretch now.

Much love to my American peeps!

Penticton

We wrapped up our intergalactic creature show in Vancouver after five shows, and several strolls and workshops. My favorite part of the trip has become the minutes directly after a show. Children want to meet and talk to my character, and I can actually talk back. I tell them to study their chemistry, pose for a few pictures and answer questions. It's kind of special.

We also spent time TEARING UP several dance scenes, including the festival closing party. The Topcats played, which was essentially the Nazo band without masks. The musicians we have in the band right now are out of this world.

So we got on a bus with Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, Les Parfaits Inconnus and some other performers and drove to this Penticton place. They call it a city. It reminds me of a small midwest city, except with lakes and mountains. Everything is spread out for no good reason, stuff is newish but not that nice.

The festival grounds, tents and crowds are smaller, but the kids still loved our first show today, and the stroll went well too.

Hopefully I'll find more time with the Net soon. No new pictures for now.

Much love.

Vancouver!

So we have four days of performing behind us now. The show is being continually tweaked, and continues to be well attended. Apparently the tent seats a thousand people, and it's at least 75% full. The first two shows seemed sold out, when the school groups were at the festival.

We've also done a couple 45 minute strolls that have been great fun. Kids everywhere make it more interesting for us.

Sharing a hotel and stage with a French-Canadian musical/acrobatic/comedic company called L'Parfaits Inconnus (The Perfect Unknowns in English, and don't hold me to the French spelling) has led to a great relationship. One of the five has his girlfriend and their two kids along. (One kid is still in her belly.) All very nice people, we look forward to being on the bus with them to the next festival as well.

All the festival staff is great, I'm not used to this kind of treatment. The Luxury Bum tour with Will Brierly those years ago was built on a foundation of being on the outside trying to get in. I have that magical "PERFORMER" badge now, and a hotel, and breakfast, and no worries, really.

Vancouver really is a great city. After our show on Thursday, I took a long walk along the water, to the thousand acre park that encompasses the end of the peninsula. The area between the water and the skyscrapers is beautiful, with separate paths for perambulators and their wheeled counterparts. There were beaches, grassy areas, volleyball courts...all manner of great stuff a few blocks from downtown.

Imagine if you could leave your office, walk a few blocks, and be on the beach? With another fabulous looking park across the "creek," grass around? I can only imagine how valuable this is on everyone in the city's state of mind.

The buildings all seem fairly new, with tasteful architecture. Almost nothing looks run down. There's just so much more green than most cities for some reason: trees, grass, ivy. Wonderful.

There's a place a few blocks from our hotel with a sushi special: 18 pieces for $5.50. And it's very good sushi. There's actually lots of sushi places, and the prices are all comparable in price. I can't speak for the quality yet. So the food is abundant and good, there are some pretty rad shops as well. It's a great city to walk around in.

So I've fallen for Vancouver a little. I've already told myself that I would never leave the Northeast; family and friends beat out a nice city. But if we were relocate the clan, this would be a place to consider.

I've put up some more pictures, some with caption that give a little more explanation. I'm busy most of the time, so it's hard to write as much as I would like. We'll be leaving in a couple days, perhaps I'll be able to document the Big Nazo experience a little better when we get into the mountains.

Much love!

O CANADA

I've not only arrived in Vancouver now, but I've got my first show out of the way. I've also had my first substantial bowel movement, so I'm a lot less stressed than I was this morning.

The drama started early, on a plane that only sat 20. When 9 of those passengers are checking 2 GIGANTIC hockey bags each, the cargo space is tight. We overheard their concerns on the radio, and they even sat the women in a different place than the men to compensate for our luggage. A bit hectic.

So the plane was late after all the shannegans, and we missed our connecting flight from Toronto to Vancouver. We also discovered that they gave up on fitting all the bags and only put on 9. So we caught the next flight to Vancouver and our bags made their way, eventually reaching the hotel the following morning.

Wednesday we brought the other bags to the site, got everything organized, and then headed to a children's hospital for a six-person mini-show. Great fun. The kids seemed to enjoy it almost as much as the adults. Afterwards, a local TV reporter tried to interview us. It's hard to be too professional when a troll is licking your microphone, though. After that we soundchecked and ran the show almost all the way through. Of course, we only had a few hours and there were lots of changes being made still. It's an ever-evolving kind of a thing.

This morning we had a workshop in a nautical museum with about 30 adorable kids. We explain to them how puppets work, and get them up and acting. It's a hoot. Our first show was an hour later, so we were in major scramble mode, of course.

I'm not going to say it was perfect, but I think it went very well. No mistakes, really. The show can be improved though; tightened up, sharpened. I know when I'm more relaxed about all the nitty gritty of entrances and costume changes (my real skill) I'll be able to give it a little more onstage.

I have pics but I can't upload them now, next post. I want to talk more about the city, too.

If you know me well enough to read this, assume I miss you a bunch.

Gearing up

The intergalactic, interspecies rock and roll puppet brigade heads to Canada tomorrow morning. I'm about ready myself, although my anticipated costume sneakers are missing, so I'll just have to use some orange ones instead of red. I think it will be fine.

We rehearsed Saturday, and worked on some puppets, and more puppetwork on sunday. There were six pieces to be completed, when I left Sunday for dinner all three new bellies were done (see pictures) but the trolls not so much. I think the hogg monster will have to wait.

I'm already gone in my mind. Anyway, I created a Flickr set for posting pictures, so click to see them all.

New clothes!

Like a giddy seventeen-year-old girl, I'm here to tell you all about the clothes I bought last night, and the experiments I did with them.

I'm getting ready to head to Canada, where I'll be doing multiple shows a day for a few days straight, getting sweaty and such. So...a potentially smelly three weeks.

I have this black T made from spagey polymers or something that is supposed to wick moisture and do all that, it's pretty great. Normally I just wear cotton, and get wet. It's gross. I'm hoping to change that model.

After spending nearly $47 at Marshalls, I have a pair of high-tech wicking underwear, some polyester socks, and two high-tech t-shirts. All black, as is the Nazo tradition.

I figure I can change shirts and socks between shows once a day, which could be great if it really heats up. It's hot in the costumes even in winter, really.

So I dunked them all thoroughly in the sink last night, wrung them out and hung them to dry in the bathroom. After a few hours, they were still a little damp, but by morning bone dry. I also bought a pair of board shorts that I did the same with. So now I have an entire wardrobe I can wash in the hotel sink, dry over night and be ready to go with in the morning. Obviously this isn't everyone's idea of hygiene, but I like the idea of sustainability on the road.

I'm bringing other clothes too, but as always I'm trying to pack super light. One pair of shoes, one pair of pants, stuff like that.

Some other recent additions to my trip luggage include a borrowed iPod and a tiny point-and-shoot digital camera.

Editor's note, I originally posted this here, but it got long enough I felt the need to repost it.

I wouldn't say that I don't have the money to pay for cable, because I could dig it up somewhere. But more importantly, I don't WANT to pay for cable. If I did that, I'd probably get the high-speed Internet package too, and now I have to shell out $100 monthly to Cox. I'd rather spend that money on...I don't know a motorcycle or something.

Anyway, now I have one channel, the CW, which is unwatchable. I find infomercials more entertaining. (Actually, the CW might show infomercials late at night. That I could get behind.) So TV is out. I have a TV though, and DVD player. Anyway, here are my usual non-cable activities, in no particular order. Also keep in mind I often do one or more of these at a time.

1. Watch stupid YouTube videos. This is probably good to kill a couple of hours. Of course, since I'm stealing somebody else's wireless, I wait a while for them to load. I'm patient.

2. Video games. I picked up a used PS2 a few months ago for about $100. It's also a DVD player, and you can find used games for $5-10 at lots of game shops.

3. Listen to sports games. Really, the Red Sox are 70% as good when they're just on the radio. If you look, you can also find sites that will stream audio of all the NBA playoff games.

4. My 1000 piece puzzle. I've been working for a few weeks and I'm about 7% done. If you need to entertain yourself for 2 months and you only have $4, I recommend this.

5. Actually cook a meal. This one hasn't really been happening for me yet, but if I don't have TV to distract me, I should be able to focus on making some delicious food. So far I've got as far as scrambled egg with salsa in a flour tortilla. That's kind of a breakfast burrito, right?

6. Pick-up sports. I prefer ultimate frisbee. There are some kids who play in Buttonwood Park around 3 p.m. I'm told. I only played with them once. I imagine if you're free at 3 p.m. during the week then you definitely need to pinch pennies. Anyway, I play with a bunch of Middleboro townies Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6. All you need is a pair of sneakers and some clothes you can run around in. I'm sure in New Bedford basketball is a more popular choice, but I couldn't even play for the Miami Heat I'm so bad.

7. Play music. I have a drum set I bought of a high school kid for $75 some years ago. I can't tell you how much fun it is to bang around. I've got a yard-sale guitar I do the same with. I'm hoping to write a song about Rock and Roll soon. I don't know how my neighbors feel about all this.

8. Watching movies. I still have a VHS player, which is great because stores will practically pay you to take those off their hands. Savers always has a great selection. I have some DVD's as well. I try not to own them though, it's much easier to borrow from my friends' and coworkers' extensive libraries.

9. Read a book. Lame, but effective.

10. Sewing. I have a denim jacket I sew patches onto. It's relaxing, and it's given me a rad custom coat. Awesome jackets are always in style, and it's a great conversation starter with the ladies or gentlemen.

Here are some things I don't do, but might be fun too:

-Paint your walls a bright, fun color.
-Start a rap group with a gimmick. Something like all your songs being about water balloon fights.
-Make friendship bracelets and give them to coworkers. If you're unemployed, sell them to people.
-Learn to dance. But don't get lessons or an instructional video, just FEEL the dance.
-Write a letter. Not an e-mail, but actually put pen to paper. Everyone loves getting one of these: grandmothers, second cousins, parole officers, grammar-school classmates, and the Standard-Times.
-Flip over the puzzle once you're done, and try to do it without the aid of a picture. That'll extend that $4 for years.
-Try to get a public access cable show. Of course, you won't be able to watch your show, but maybe when you're at the studio on break you can catch some new episodes of Lost or whatever.
-Karaoke (Actually I just did this last night, and after a PBR and sangria, I was down $6, so this may not be that economical.)