Dan Posluns

The past couple of weeks I’ve been feeling somewhat worthless and crappy. Not because of big, sweeping things, but rather little niggling things, none of which individually amounts to much or which I feel compelled to write about in this blog, where I keep trying to accentuate the positive as the song goes. I need more sleep. I’m glad I’m busy most nights… I’d rather be busy than bored. But lately I’ve been questioning if I’m getting as much out of staying busy as the effort I pour into it, and if a happy medium exists it continues to elude me.

I went to traffic court and had the more expensive count of my ticket dismissed “in the interests of justice” (that was cool to hear). The other count was reduced to $99. I think I may have misstepped in that I could have had that $99 fine “deferred” and kept off my record entirely if I managed to avoid another moving violation for a year. But they only let you do that every seven years, apparently, and they don’t let you weigh the option of deferring against whatever leniency the judge might show you… you have to choose and then present your case, not the other way around.

Being in court was a little intimidating, although I learned that you apparently don’t have to dress up nearly as nice as I did for traffic court. Or even be very coherent. Still, there’s something about the formality of all of it, surrounded by a couple dozen of your peers, being asked to give your “excuse”… it’s a bit like being called to the front of the class when you secretly only watched the movie and never read the book you’re supposed to be reporting on. (Tess of the D’Urbervilles, 10th grade, I believe I got the highest mark out of anyone who was assigned that book.)

I went to the farmer’s market that’s kittycorner to me and bought some more Rainier cherries, plums and peaches. The cherries we get out here are excellent, but I’ve had some difficulty coming to terms with the reality that the peaches simply won’t ever be as good as the ones I could get in Ontario or New York… they’re either artificially ripened on their way from California or if they’re local they’re usually undersized and covered in bruises and other defects. Plums aren’t my favourite fruit, but at least they’re usually pretty reliable… I am annoyed by how deceptive fruit can be, and how the quality of its flesh so rarely speaks to what lies beneath. That is, of course, true of so many things… I guess that’s what makes them so ripe for metaphor. (Pun unintended, but still clever.)

Dan.

Well, I finally have the new iPhone and while not the work of pure divinity one might expect, it’s worlds better than anything I’m used to with my old Helio. I don’t even feel that badly that it’s costing me $20 more per month after adjustments to my account in order to get a decent amount of text messages (which were included for me before).

Read about my adventure in purchasing the iPhone

Improv last night was interesting… we were short-staffed for Theatresports so the teams only had two people on them. I was partnered with the talented and skilled Jeremy Richards, which was great, except I think I wound up letting him carry us more than he should have had to. I don’t think there was a problem with our scenework and the audience seemed amicable enough, but it was still kind of an off-night for me and I made some weak choices. In spite of that, though, I really enjoyed the two-person teams, and how it took away the element of choice: you’re always out there performing whenever it’s your turn, so you have less time to think about what you’re doing and don’t have to worry as much about balancing the performers.

I went Friday to see friends performing in South Pacific at Snoqualmie Falls Forest Theater (where I’ve performed in Shakespeare shows as recently as a couple summers back). I was disappointed I missed the opportunity to audition and play with them, but after the long drive out there and thinking about how much time I would likely have been spending in that Quonset hut again I figured that I’m probably better off just camping with them a couple of weekends anyway.

My audition this past week was okay, but could have gone better… I had unexpected breathing issues in my song. I really hope I get called back, but I got a fortune cookie the other day that told me to “manage my expectations”. I’m used to fortune cookies not giving actual fortunes out, but it’s the first time any foodstuff has directly advised me against hoping.

Dan.

I’ve obtained a photo of me in my new suit:

… Dashing.

This past weekend was hectic as a friend was visiting from Edmonton. We ran around the city doing and eating far too much. I performed at Theatresports and it was okay, although the energy was a bit weird in a way we couldn’t quite explain afterwards. I also attended what was hopefully my last wedding this summer… it was beautiful and the ceremony was (mercifully, in the summer heat without air conditioning) about the shortest I’ve ever seen.

My attempts at getting the iPhone have failed miserably so far. I went on launch day only to witness a line of several hundred people that apparently was taking as long as six hours for people to get through, and I was having none of that (although I did know three people in the line who were apparently much more dedicated than myself). I thought I stood a decent shot this morning as I returned from dropping my friend off at the airport… but after an hour and a half in line and being second to the front I was informed that they were all out, which was quite a bit infuriating as they kept insisting they didn’t know how many they had left but when the final answer is sixteen they are either deliberately misleading you or grossly incompetent. There’s talk that they might be getting more by Wednesday. My patience is wearing thin, though… I’m sick of my Ocean.

I grabbed a bunch of pictures taken from the last few hours of the Improvathon and added them to my gallery. Unfortunately I don’t have a more complete selection available. I’m hoping to get galleries online of other shows I’ve done as well… Damn Yankees, Urinetown and the like. Dredging up photos is hard, though.

I was feeling kind of ill today but I think I’m better now. It’s probably from all the sun, food and activity over the weekend. My stomach still hurts a bit though… bleagh.

We’ve been having some beautiful weather. I hope it lasts a while longer.

It’s audition season, and I have an audition every week for the next three weeks (including this one). Depending on how I do at them, I may have three callbacks as well in the final week. I’m also pre-invited to a callback in August. It’s all so much stuff… I’m almost as scared of getting cast as I am of not getting cast.

Dan.

This past week was fairly exciting, as it was both Canada Day on Tuesday and America Day on Friday. I celebrated Canada Day by claiming the lunch room at work in the name of Her Majesty, the Queen:

I sent out an e-mail to the company that detailed this conquest and included the long version of O Canada. It was well-received, except was eventually defiled by American revolutionaries. Oh well.

America Day meant a holiday from work, and I spent the afternoon in the company of some very good theatre friends who were having a barbecue. Now one of the grand American traditions of the holiday is to try and detonate some of the land you love, but it just so happens that setting off fireworks in Seattle is illegal. Such laws are a trifle to my one friend whose parents happen to own a fireworks stand, though. At personal risk I helped him unload what I was told was a payload probably in the neighbourhood of $2,000 or so.

Now the friend with the fireworks - let’s call him Vee - and the owner of the house - let’s call her Jay - have a long-standing friendship where they have performed alongside each other (both are two of the most spectacular and hard-working talents I have the privilege of knowing), but Vee is very, well, full of life and often when they get together socially at Vee’s behest the more moderate Jay will wind up with a concussion or some other form of mild trauma. I should now note that Jay is not a fan of fireworks in her home - is rather ruffled by them, in fact - and it took a lot of nudging and guarantees of safety from Vee to convince her it was a sane idea to ignite them in her back yard.

So of course what came to pass was that Vee gave the first firework - a simple smoke grenade - to a twelve-year old boy who broke it and caused it to emit a fiery plume. He dropped it and it sat in the middle of the yard, right next to the shoe of Jay’s three-year-old daughter who burst into tears at the sight of her shoe being roasted. The footwear was recovered but not before it suffered some unsightly burns, and the grenade continued to carve out a patch of soil in the grass next to it for quite some time.

Jay got all tight-lipped as she hugged her wailing child and Vee banged his head in gentle disbelief onto grass next to him. I nearly shed tears myself, I was so moved by the poetry of the spectacle before me.

My friends are fantastic.

I tried to hit up another party that night as well: one of the ensemble members at Unexpected has a houseboat moored at Lake Union, and every America Day he has a party there and people watch the (state-sanctioned) fireworks from some of the best seats in the city. I was unfortunately coming after the fireworks, but what should have been a five-minute drive became thoroughly ridiculous as cops had quarantined off that entire section of the city and made it virtually impossible to get anywhere close. There were barriers that kept me from even getting onto the street that his marina was on, and because all of the main and side streets were closed off it took me over an hour just to get back to the highway… as a result I missed partying with all of my improv friends, and caught some minor hell for it later on.

I did Theatresports last night and it went pretty well. I could have been stronger and I think our team could’ve had slightly better chemistry, but I had a good Shakespeare scene and the audience enjoyed it. After the show some girls came to me and got all excited that I reminded them of Buster from Arrested Development. They seemed to think this was some kind of badge of honour and I should be proud that I resembled whom they thought of as the funniest character on the show. I was a little perturbed that I reminded them of the awkward guy with an Oedipus complex and quite possibly some kind of genetic deficiency. It still feels good when the audience takes a personal interest in me, though, especially as I still think of myself as a somewhat unremarkable improviser.

Being in the UP ensemble is such a fantastic and unique privilege; I never stop being in awe of how incredibly lucky I am to have this weekly venue where I can get on a stage and play games with such talented and wonderful people, as though it were normal for someone of my quality to be able to do this kind of thing. I’ll be driving home usually well past 1 A.M. to my suburban condo and unexceptional life, wondering in a bit of a daze what kind of weird dimensional rift I’m coming from where I can be this celebrity to maybe a hundred people, and to know that the folks that put me in that spot will want me back next week. Not everything in my life is as perfect as I’d like, but truly I am blessed beyond measure when it comes to this.

Today I have the second of three weddings, and I’m supposed to be cleaning my condo but am procrastinating by writing this blog instead. I shanghaied my most fashion-savvy friend into helping me buy a new suit - my first new suit in over a decade (I wore the last one to prom). I wound up getting a charcoal, three-button number from Nordstrom’s… I wasn’t prepared to blow the bank or anything but I wanted to spend enough to get something nice and not merely serviceable. The one I got was on sale for $520, marked down from over $1,000, so it very much satisfied my need to feel like I was getting value on the dollar. I also got a new shirt and tie, as well as a belt and dress shoes. Shoes threatened to be a problem as I didn’t realize how ridiculously expensive they would be, but I was able to get a really nice pair from the Nordstrom “Rack” (ie. Nordstrom’s budget/value sibling store) for $100 less than they would have cost at the one I bought the suit at. At the end of the day I spent around $750 in upgrading my entire line of formal wear, which seems like a solid investment.

I will try to get some pictures of myself in the new getup soon, and then you my loyal readership can judge for yourselves. ;-)

Dan.