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Fair Verona is Shakespeare as he never intended. Graham Jenner and Kerri Bojman have remixed and resampled Romeo and Juliet (with lines from other Shakespearean plays) to create the one-act tale of a community killing its most beautiful young people through an obsession with conformity and ritual. The text is pure Shakespeare, mashed up and rearranged. The themes of the play are not exactly foreign to the Bard’s work, but while they’re merely implicit in the original R&J, here they are explicit and a bit chilling.

The play is being put on at the McMaster University Summer Drama Festival (website here), a perennial celebration of theater completely by students. The budget is miniscule, the stage was built by volunteers, but the offerings at this festival are often amazing. McMaster has more than its share of talented actors, but it also produces skilled stage crew, directors, and (obviously) playwrights.

This festival is one of the best bangs for your theater buck anywhere. Talented young women and men come together every year to put it together from scratch, and their dedication always shows. The music was even composed by one of the actors, who is also an advanced music student.

Fair Verona starts this weekend, with three more performances next week. See the SDF website for more details. And here are some more shots from the rehearsals. Enjoy!

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Fair Verona is coming along nicely. It’s a thoughtful, lovely piece about a nice, cohesive community crushing young love like a ladybug. Last night was the first rehearsal at the outdoor stage in The Hollow. Mosquitoes, volume issues, etc… but it’s still a great play. I’m loving it. There was far too little light to take decent crisp snapshot-type photos last night, but there was enough for some long-exposure crazy shots, so here is one. I like to think that Shakespeare would have approved of the ghostly apparitions strutting on the stage.

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Alex said this was her favorite shot from the Hamilton Harbour fireworks last night, so here it is. O Canada! Two more fireworks pics after the cut.

Continue reading →

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As you can see, I put this up because it’s such a ridiculously adorable picture, not to embarrass my adorable wife.

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Another year has come and gone, and here I am writing another online Christmas letter to everyone instead of sending cards like considerate people do. Oh well. I married Alex so she could compensate for such deficits in my personality. (Note: Since writing this, I have migrated my photos to Flickr, so the photo links are all broken. Maybe I’ll fix them, someday).

Here’s how this newsletter works (feel free to skip sections that do not interest you):

1. Christmas Message
2. Things that have happened this year.

Note that you can click the text links or the pictures for extra information. Clicking names of places usually takes you to a map. Clicking pictures will take you to the large version of the picture. Pictures will open in a separate browser window.

Confused? Just click some stuff and see what happens.

Christmas Message

As most of you know, Alex and I are Christian, so Merry Christmas! But if you’re celebrating Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Pagan Winter Feast, or just Many Days Off Work, we wish you fondest and warmest times, as well.

Although we recognize that Christ was probably not born in December, and we are skeptical of the reality of elves, we are happy for the opportunity to join with others in celebrating Jesus’ life and acts. And we’re glad, in general, for the chance to just pause with the rest of the world, Christian or not, and enjoy a few days with friends and family.

So, Happy Holidays. If you’re reading this, we love you. Lots.

Year In Review

The year has been busy, and full of bad news, good news, and just news. Some of the bad news is that Alex and I still do not live together. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario (just north of Buffalo, NY), and I live in Edinburg, TX (just south of everything). We are working very hard to get in the same place this year, but jobs, education and citizenship issues make this a sticky business. We’ll try to keep you informed. For updates (inconsistent, sometimes incoherent, but often with pictures), just check this website from time to time: www.bobbyfiend.com. It’s my personal blog and I try to give some sort of account of what’s happening in my life, on a semi-regular basis. Of course, if that’s not the kind of thing you want to read about, I recommend staying away from this website.

Winter and Spring

January is always a little depressing, as Alex and I have to separate after a month together. We got to see each other a couple of times before May, and I was even in Quebec City for a conference, but that was without Alex (it’s surprising how far apart some of these cities are). I was as sick as a dog the whole time, so it’s just as well. Alex got to go to St. Johns, Newfoundland (which is a million miles from anything) for a different conference, and brought back enough pictures and stories to make me want to go back with her, someday. During the summer. Not the winter.

The semester kept me busy. I seemed to be traveling every other weekend. I made about half a dozen trips, what with visiting Alex and academic responsibilities. In between, I tried to keep my classes and research moving, which is not as easy as I had always imagined it would be. My sweetie, during this time period, was working on her dissertation, (a process I can sympathize with) and also c0-starring in two plays: The Night of the Iguana and Oedipus Rex. Later, in the summer, she and I both helped out (she as an actor and I as a stagehand) in a community production of Good Night Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet.

At the end of Spring, I flew up to Canada (as is my wont), breathed a huge sigh of relief, and settled in for a summer of teaching and hanging out with my wife–something I’m not taking for granted, quite yet (give me another year or two…).

Summer

Summers for the last two years have been my relief periods. Not because of the work load, although it’s reduced somewhat, but because I get to spend three months with my wife. This year, like last, we hung out in her un-air-conditioned third-floor apartment while the temperature inside climbed to about 100 degrees sometimes. Odd that I’m hotter in Ontario during the summer than I would be in my fully-air-conditioned apartment in Texas.

We both enjoyed our academic work (I was teaching an online class and doing research; Alex was still slaving away on the dissertation), and enjoyed just being around each other. We even played some hockey, which was a definite first for me. Good times.

The last half of the summer was a crazy round of travel. We spent a week at Alex’s parents’ lovely cottage, about 3 hours north of Toronto, with our friends Amanda, Scott and Brad, as well as Alex’s brothers, sister, their significant others, her in-laws, niece and nephews, and parents. It was a wonderful time, and it’s hard not to fill this entire page with photos from that experience. While we were there, we played disc golf (hooray!) at a course in South River, and spent a day paddling a canoe in Algonquin Park. I’d go back in a second.

After Northern Ontario, we drove quickly back to Southern Ontario, then flew to the wedding of my friend Scott and his bride, Lisha, in the mountains near Pike’s Peak, Colorado. It was gorgeous up there! Alex and I are keeping an eye out for academic jobs in the area ;).Directly on the heels of this trip–meaning we didn’t even go home first–we flew to Washington and visited my delightful cousin Sharon and her family, then headed to Idaho for the Rogers Family Reunion. We were, honestly, a little concerned at the somewhat low attendance, but within an hour we were enjoying ourselves immensely. Especially fun was playing with our nieces and nephews, most of whom Alex had never met, and all of whom had grown up tons since the last time I saw them. I love them all dearly, and hope to get to hang out with them more, in the future. So, my siblings need to visit me in Texas more often. And bring your kids.

As you might have guessed, after the Colorado-Washington-Idaho trip, it was back to Ontario, whirlwind unpacking-then-packing, and down to Texas to start the school year once again, and lose my wife for another semester.

Fall

Fall is exciting and depressing at the same time. Academics like Alex and I tend to have a hopeful, happy feeling at the beginning of every school year, but we also have to leave each other after three months spent getting used to living together (almost like real married people!). So, to ease the pain, Alex goes down with me to Texas and hangs out for a couple of weeks or more, and we get to be a normal husband and wife for a little longer. This time, we got adventurous (her idea) and camped on the beach at South Padre Island. It was a wonderful experience, although I’ve heard since that it may not be entirely safe, despite the fact that it’s a state park. So, deep sigh, we probably won’t be doing that again any time soon, at least just the two of us. But we enjoyed the experience immensely, and we love the beach. We found great peace in putting our folding chairs in the shallow breakers and zoning out for hours while the waves tickled our feet.

It seems that right after Alex left I got a new cat. Sigh. Not that I needed one. His name is Moses (because he came out of the reeds), and I found him near a reservoir outside Edinburg. The whole story is explained if you click here. Anyway, now I have two cats. And they both live with my sweetie in Canada, because it’s impractical to get care for them when I leave for a week or a month or a summer. Despite his unplanned appearance, I still like Moses. Good cat. And I miss both my feline monsters when I’m in Texas.

Work is work. I’m finally collecting data on a project that should have been done half a year ago, and I’ve applied for two more grants–one small and the other very large (10 universities, about 100 investigators, and tens of millions of dollars from the Department of Homeland Security). I keep busy with our little Psychology Department’s hopes for a PhD program, advising students, teaching classes, and working on my research. It’s a little more than your average full-time job, but I don’t mind. I’m trying to build up some momentum that will carry me a while when Alex and I finally live together and I feel like having true 40-hour work weeks for a bit.

In October, I was invited to be part of a university expedition to Monterrey, Nuevo Le�n, M�xico. About 20 of us met with some officials of a couple of universities down there, and that is turning into an interesting collaborative experience. I hope I get to do some cross-border research, cause Monterrey is a very cool place. I’m looking forward to going back.

Alex and I are on the job market, and it’s an unpleasant experience. Academic politics are active, sometimes irritating, and often confusing. I’m reminded of my father, quoting Napoleon, telling me not to assume malice when incompetence is the more likely answer… We don’t know if Alex will get the job she has applied for at UTPA (where I work), or if we will both be offered jobs at one of the half-dozen places we both applied to, together. I love my work, but I’ll give it up if I can be with my wife. If none of our plans pan out, we’ll be thinking fast. Plan C might be a bit creative. We’ll have to wait and see.

Alex has stayed busy, trying to regulate her very disobedient sleeping schedule, working tirelessly on her dissertation, playing hockey, and even rehearsing for another play (she’s Lady MacBeth). I think she’s at her best when she’s got a few irons in the fire. We have kept in touch as much as possible, visited once or twice this semester, and are now together for nearly a month, which is lovely. Phone calls and seeing each other once a month don’t really cut it, sometimes.

It’s the winter holiday season, now, and that has always been a time to try to reconnect with family and friends I don’t talk to very much. I’ve always been terrible at keeping lines of communication open, so I hope you’ll forgive me for the generic flavor of this message, and know that I still care about you. Happy Holidays.

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So I’m seeing this annoying trip in a different light. I got here fine (yay!), Alex drove without wrecking, happy reunion, etc.

So, given the nasty weather yesterday, one perspective is that it was fortuitous that I got stranded. I wasn’t hurt, Alex wasn’t hurt, I wasn’t permanently stuck anywhere, I didn’t have to spend a night in the airport (ick; I’ve done it before), and now we’re together and healthy and happy and sane. and all it cost was 1 day and $90 or so (the food wasn’t as expensive as I thought it would be).

Oh, and one pair of pants, but in fairness to the pants, I was jumping a fence at the time, and my butt got too close to the top of the chain link. Oh well. They were old.

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Okay, I my previous parody of a news story about the U.S. gov’t targeting anyone with non-mainstream religious belief was supposed to be over-the-top and dystopian.

However, Cnet news today had a piece on directions the government is taking to combat terror by policing the potential hotbeds of terror. It seems there are those in the government of this fair country who get together in secret little meetings and make guidelines (rules come later?) about stopping homegrown terror. We should all, apparently, be concerned about the following dangerous things:

• anyone with an “extremist belief system”
• anyone who believes that “the U.S. government is infringing on their individual rights”
• anyone who believes that “the government’s policies are criminal and immoral”
• the internet (because it facilitates violent ideologies and because it “allows anyone to set himself or herself up as an authority figure.”)

I guess that last one chaps the hides of the folks who are annoyed that they already have too much competition for the title of “authority figure.”

I have got to get my dual Canadian citizenship going. You Canadians seem to be losing your civil rights at a slightly slower pace. I’m tellin’ ya, sometimes I think we’re about 3 friggin’ baby steps away from totalitarian rule disguised as homeland security.

Say, I think I’ve figured out the problem. It’s all because the government is infringing on my individual rights. Why, it’s not too much to say that some of the current governmental policies are downright criminal and immoral. I invite all like-minded individuals to use this here internet to facilitate a discussion of these radical ideals. After we have a few meetings, we’ll set one of us up as an authority figure. Doesn’t matter who. Pretty much anyone.

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The (American) media industry is apparently pushing a law that would leave Canada’s consumers among those with the fewest media use rights on the planet.

Michael Geist reports that Industry Minister Jim Prentice is preparing to fast-track a Canadian carbon copy (except worse) of the horrendously terrible DMCA that has caused lots of problems in the U.S.
Mr. Geist (linked on boingboing) suggests the new law will hand unprecedented power to media companies to restrict the way you use their media, even if you have legally purchased it. For instance, no sharing your music or video, no matter what (in some bills such as these, it is technically illegal even to loan a CD to a friend). No shifting your media between devices (even if you own them). There will be DRM protection on most everything, and you will be legally in trouble if you break the DRM if, for instance, you want to rip a copy of BSG Season 1 from DVDs to your laptop’s HD so you can watch it on the plane; or if the company that produced your crappy DRM-disabled music goes out of business and no longer offers support.

In addition, this law is likely to remove traditional legal protections such as fair dealing, satire and parody. Make a silly remake of a Wal-Mart commercial: you broke a law. Show 3 minutes of The Simpsons to your class at school: you broke a law. Rip your CDs to your MP3 player: You broke a law.

Geist says, “Once the bill is introduced, look for the government to put it on the fast track with limited opportunity for Canadians to appear before committees considering the bill.”

So, if it comes up, kill it fast, much like a horrible dragon, or a zombie dragon, or something else that’s horrible and should be killed fast.

Otherwise, welcome to the corporate fiefdom. We Americans, having more experience in this area, will help you adjust to the reduced levels of liberty and justice.

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Dead Chevy for Sale in Alamo

ONE: I was at Target today, and on the endcap, where they put the closeouts, there was some spaghetti. It was black. Pitch black. Pretty cool, no? After I got it home and started making dinner, I chanced to look at the ingredients (while I was chatting online with hot babes my hot babe, Alex). Let me reproduce for you the ingredients box on this package of spaghetti:

INGREDIENTS: SEMOLINA, SQUID INK, FERROUS LACTATE (IRON), NIACIN, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID.

Perhaps you didn’t notice the unexpected ingredient in there. Riboflavin?! <tgsvoice>That’s awesome!</tgsvoice>. No, seriously. It’s amazing how one single ingredient can make the whole list very, very weird. But it tasted fine with some sauce and cheese. I had seconds.

TWO: I have been avoiding booking my flight to see Alex, not because I don’t want to see her, but because I hate the expense and hassle of the entire process. Well, I got into the groove, and on a whim I checked the usually-insanely-restrictive continental.com rewards flight availability, and I found a flight! My travel for Christmas will cost me $10 instead of $500! So I celebrated by buying $75 worth of DVDs on amazon.com.

THREE: I have only committed one of the major sins today (not including Lust, cause I figure I get a bit of a free pass now, when it’s directed at my wife… what!? you knew what I was when you started reading this post). I have compensated for the lack of variety with frequency. Today I think I have committed about 3,000 separate instances of Sloth.

That is all.

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steely eyes of porcelain death in a shop window… or something
I know I nearly promised no more pics from the curandera’s shop. But I like it. It’s highly interesting to me. Maybe this is how I satisfy my itchings for the macabre, because ridiculous crap like the Saw and Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchises just really don’t do it for me.

Know what? Christmas is coming! I’ve hit on a project to make a present or two. This makes me happy, and makes me look forward to the holiday. I find that when all I do is buy presents, I really don’t look forward to it as much.

In other news, OSU continues to stomp heads. Yay! And the weather here is perfect and gorgeous. Just cool enough not to need the A/C all night, but not so cold that I need more than a light blanket. Sigh. “Fall” and “Winter” here are pretty sweet. And for summers… there’s always Ontario.

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 I KNEW IT!!!

So, the above is a written confession of what I have suspected for some time. It is written–ironically–on a package notification slip. My mailperson apparently does not deliver mail when it is inconvenient to do so. I live in a kind of cul-de-sac with several mailboxes, in groups of 3 or 4, placed around the periphery. When I got home yesterday, there was one car parked with its nose toward my mailbox group. No other cars. The postal employee, in order to fulfill his or her sacred mail duties, would have had to actually get out of the vehicle and walk eight to ten feet.Neither rain, nor snow, nor gloom of night shall stay these couriers from swift completion of their appointed rounds. But don’t make them get out of the car. That’s not in the contract.I’m not sure how loudly I want to complain, though, because… you know… postal worker.

US vs. Canada postal service comparison (to date):
Delivery on Saturday: Advantage –> U.S.A.
General Delivery Speed: Advantage –> U.S.A. (small margin)
Hot Older Lady at Post Office: Advantage –> Canada
Post Offices Open Late: Advantage –> Canada
Any Little Thing Makes Them Not Deliver the Mail: Advantage –> Canada.

In Other News, Lore Sjöberg’s Luddite blog on Wired.com has some interesting, little-known facts about dinosaurs. Consider the following:

There Were No Tyrannosaurus Rexes Named ‘Rex’
These huge predators may have been designed by nature to be unstoppable eating machines, but they also knew a trite name when they heard one. Thorough investigation of late Cretaceous wedding registries indicates that the most common name for male T. rexes was “Jayden,” followed by “Palmer.” The three most popular female T. rex names were “Ashley,” “Ashlee” and “Ashlie,” in that order. There was one T. rex named “Dex,” but he had no friends.

See? You learn new things every time you open up the ol’ webs. Things about dinosaurs. Things about postal workers.

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Redline fixie on campus

So, cool bike on campus, eh? I just happened to be out with my new camera, shooting all kinds of terrible pictures, when I saw it. First fixed-gear bike I’ve seen here. Kinda neat. I especially like the strapless MTB clips (I’ve seen those for sale, and they looked interesting) and the clearly homemade aluminum-from-Home-Depot rack (I should have taken close-ups of the welds; they look neat).

So, I went to a couple of Rio Grande Valley Icehole games this week. Interesting experience. I don’t think I’ll be joining up, after all. [warning: rationalization and excuses ahead]. It wasn’t just the deafeningly loud music blasting for the entire 60-minute game. It wasn’t just the hecklers in the crowd (after all, they didn’t heckle *me*). It wasn’t the increased pushing and shoving on the ice (I can get used to that, and shove back). It wasn’t the run-down arena with dripping ceilings and mounds and pits on the ice (actually, the arena is pretty endearing and cool in that way).

Continue reading →

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[cat in the UTPA covered walkway]
 So I am taking bike for spin around block, and he is roll very nice. ::eyebrow wiggle::

I pumped up the front tire, and it held 80 psi. Miracle for those cracked, crumbling, barely-there tires. Cross fingers. The rear was a mess, but I patched it twice, then removed the (not working) patches and did it again. It held air, too. I adjusted the brakes, put a little lube here and there, and went for a ride. Also I put some lubricant on the bike.

A 3 mile ride went off without a hitch, as they say. Enjoyable. The rear tire went flat a few minutes after the ride, though. Screw it. New tube. The old one was flaking away in hunks anyway, when I was roughening the patch area.

The bike fit is not bad (I raised the seat an inch or so), but the drop stem may have to go, and the drop bars will definitely be finding their way into the spare parts collection soon. Also these 6-inch-wide handlebars. It’s weird to feel my chest actually constricted while riding, from keeping my arms in far enough to rest on the hoods or the drops. Ugh.

Turns out the seatpost diameter is 27.2mm, so I think the old seatpost from  Mr. Bikey will work. The one on there kind of suxxorz, even though it’s pretty light.

I’m doing this to take my mind off Alex. She left a few hours ago, and must be in the air even while I write. I had a rude shock a moment ago, when I realized that she will not be blogging in the other room when she reads this.

I live in three different worlds, it seems. There’s Canada world (which includes Alex), Texas-with-Alex world, and Texas-without-Alex world. More than Alex leaving, it seems like I just slid from one world into the other.

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But first, a gratuitous picture of my sweetie at Garden of the Gods:

So Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams got together in a dark bar one night…

First Excellent Thing:BLDGBLOG has a wonderful, wonderful, delicious article about Michael Cook, a guy in Toronto who is an urban explorer, with an emphasis on subterranean exploring (especially Toronto and Hamilton). This means drains and sewers, largely. There are some sa-weet photos here, which you simply must see to appreciate. The article links to his blog (which has apparently crashed from the newfound publicity), and to sites of other underground urban explorers. Seriously, if I didn’t suddenly have a heightened sense of my own mortality (since, say, June 3 of last year), this is the kind of thing I’d be really, really tempted to do. It tickles my fancy in particular ways. Actually, I’m not saying I won’t do a little of it. The not-very-dangerous kind. Here’s a sample photo (click for larger size, as usual):

Second Excellent Thing: Berkeley Breathed, author of the original Bloom County strip, has continued (with much less fanfare) to create Opus. Recent strips about Lola Granola jumping on the “Radical Islamist” bandwagon in her peripatetic spiritual journeying were immediately pulled from many national newspapers for fear of offending people. Pfft. I love Berk Breathed. He’s been shooting sacred cows on a regular basis since I was too young to understand political sarcasm. And we need to people like him to continue to help us see the absurdity inherent in the world around us. [click for the full comic]

(note: I found out about this by way of boing boing, and also through Salon.com, who has not pulled the strip).

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Plan:
Buffalo to Charlotte.
Charlotte to Houston. Meet Alex.
Houston to McAllen. Arrive 7:00 pm.
Pick up car in parking lot (left by good friend Amy, who has been babysitting it all summer)

8:30 am EST Tried to leave Hamilton. Lost wallet.

8:45 am EST Left Hamilton.

9:35 am EST Arrived at border crossing. Despite my best efforts, I picked the slowest line. That’s always a bad sign.

9:50 am EST Got to the front of the line. Tense moments while no-nonsense border guard asked questions.

9:55 am EST Woo hoo! On our way. Dodged the bullet once more. Continue reading →

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airline frustration tastes like fried pickles.So, here I am in Charlotte. I couldn’t help noticing that it’s 4:00 pm and I’m still here. My new itinerary has me flying a US Airways flight to Dallas, but it doesn’t leave until 6:15 pm Eastern time. Then I have only 30 minutes for connection (I smell more trouble) and I fly on American to McAllen, arriving at 9:45 pm.Alex, if you’re reading this, I’m very, very sorry. First, I’m sorry that you have to wait almost 3 hours before I arrive. Second, I’m sorry I still have your Texas keys in my bag. However, if you find the car (Amy said it’s on the right as you leave the airport, in the first row, but kind of far back), there’s a car key and probably not a house key under the rear bumper, on the left. You have to kind of get down on the ground and reach your hand waaaaay up under the bumper and over a steel support piece to feel the magnetic box stuck there.

Well. I guess being on two trips together in one summer was probably too much to ask.

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ironic… like rain the day after your wedding.

I’m leaving now. I’m ambivalent about it, because there are pluses and minuses to being here in Ontario. In fact, here are some of them:

+ First, I enjoy living with my wife much more than living 2,000 miles away
- I do not enjoy being isolated from the university, people, and other resources that help me do my job. It feels like trying to run a business in Pittsburgh from a tent in the Sierras.
+ It’s only 3 months in the summer
- Then there’s winter… Continue reading →

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foxy at the Florissant fossil beds

My Honey at 8,400 feet above sea level

It’s weird to be back in Hamilton, feeling like it’s home, but knowing that in 5 days I’ll be in my “real” home in Texas. As my sweetie pie has mentioned, our trip was great. Even the family reunion, which I was initially not very excited about, turned out very well. My only gripe about that is the accommodation situation (medieval torture hide-a-bed in an alcove with no privacy in a condo with 8 children and 6 other adults… not a lot of sleep for those 3 nights). My family is great, and every time I’m around them, I’m reminded of that. It was really nice to get to hang out with my nieces and nephews, too. Alex and I spent some serious quality time with Carter, Lindsey and Truman, and we had a total blast playing with them in the water park.

Speaking of water parks, Alex and I ditched the kids and rode roller coasters and vomit-inducing carnival rides for the last few hours at the amusement park. I have to say I did not expect Alex’s manic desire to spin us around and around and around at high speeds on the ferris-wheel-esque-puke-ride-of-death. This animated mockup is from Amazing Earl’s rollercoaster modeling website, and I hope it’s OK that I borrowed it. As a note, the spin on our ride was controlled by the riders. This means Alex.

 

I enjoyed every second of the ride, by the way.

I’ll blog more about the wedding itself, later. It was great to hang with Scott and the other interns again, and it was very nice to gasp for breath every night at nearly 9,000 feet altitude.

 

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We had a combined lesson for Priesthood/Relief Society today. The teacher made some very specific claims about the meaning of selected verses in the second chapter of Joel (but not the troublesome verses in between). I agree with some of his assertions, and the rest are not totally beyond the realm of possibility. However, the most obvious interpretations of those verses, in my mind, do not involve the “closet” that the Bride comes out of as a symbol of the Whitmer farm, nor the “pillars of smoke” referring to the Twin Trade Towers. Continue reading →

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