Last weekend, the TC performances went well... our best audience was on Sat. night, and our best performance was on Sunday. I was "volunteered" to host the cast party, which went really well, even though I didn't have time to make a new song list, or change my decorations that were still up from H'ween2K2. So, it kinda came out like H'ween2K2.1, which was ok. I got another girl to throw up, this time in the toilet, but she was in the cast, so it was less funny. But I'm two for two this semester, in any case. My punch is amazing.

Yeah, so, you know you're really quite stupid and forgetful when you completely lose track of the fact you've got a ticket to see a rock concert. Especially for one of your top bands. I certainly knew about it the beginning of the week, but I'd just totally forgotten the last few days, only luckily remembering two hours before the show (1.5 hours before the opening band).

But, I did remember in time, so I got to see Guster last night. In the Loyola College gym. They were excellent. As usual. They made fun of the fact they were playing in a gym. And of the Loyola newspaper saying how they were a good band to book because they were so cheap. Something like: "Book Guster: we whore ourselves for half the cost." I love those guys. They played some new songs, too... only the second night they'd performed them live. Made me drool thinking about the new album... especially one with the lyric "back in Massachusetts" (I think?).

I went alone, because my friends had massive amounts of work, but I met up with some Hopkins students that I met there kinda randomly. They were like, "Nice picture of you in the News-Letter." And I was like, "What?" And they were like, "There's a pic of you wearing that bear hat from the TC show." And I was like, "Wow, I should pick up a copy." I do so love my bear hat... I was glad it could make an appearance on the stage. I'll try to get those pics up here.

After the show, I saw Gavin, who was like the first NA kid to come to Hopkins for like two years after me (there are a couple new ones this year, I think). Seeing him reminded me about how I got into Guster in the first place: first hearing "Demons" and "Window" in morning meeting, played by a makeshift Guster cover band. Buying the first two albums from Viraj, who was a reseller in their distribution program, before you could get them in stores outside of Massachusetts. Kicking myself for missing the highly touted Guster-Rusted Root concert. Playing the albums for Chris, and getting her hooked. Good times, high school was.

Yay! The new Harry Potter flick was great! Maybe not as good as the first one, but it had some wonderful performances (Kenneth Branagh should really do comedy more often; he's always so funny and was amazing here), and some magnificent scenes with quidditch and the flying car that blow away anything from Philosopher's Stone.

It was also great to see the premiere in a 900-seat giant-screen theater, packed full of crazed fans who dressed up in costumes, chanted for the film to start those few minutes before, and ooh'ed and ahh'ed in all the right places. The Senator Theater also did a great decorating job, as usual, with fake fires like I had at my Halloween party, broomsticks, etc.

Less Hermione in this one though... she's my favorite character in the books, but JK Rowling made her kind of a throwaway in this one. Waste of a good character if you ask me. And, no, I'm not attracted to little girls. I was a teacher's pet throughout elementary school, and I still aspire to be one today... Hermione's like a kindred spirit, I guess.

First performance of Throat Culture was earlier tonight... pretty small crowd (~30?), but there was an a cappella concert double booked with us tonight. We're expecting a huge turnout for the Sat night show, though. The majority of our stuff isn't funny. Think about how so many of the skits on SNL aren't funny, and then think about how we aren't professional comedians... starting to get the picture? My friends said they liked the sketch that I wrote completely. I hope they did.

I drop my pants in this show. For those of you keeping track at home, this is the second time I've appeared on stage in my boxers, though the first time at college. My other pantless performance was way back in senior year in high school... as Sir Evelyn in Anything Goes. I did, however, appear in only long-johns as a ghost in Richard III freshman year of college... I had such a fun death scene in that one. Skin-tight Dave... now that's a scary ghost.

I've got to say that I was like two button clicks from throwing one of my own poems up here just now, but stopped myself. I really need to get over myself, and just upload a few of them. They're not good enough for people to plagiarize; and not so terrible for me to be this wimpy about sharing them. I feel like I'm denying "somepoems.com" from someone who really wants the world to see their stuff.

How about a compromise? I wrote this "fake" poetry-slam-ish poem for one of our TC sketches... in which the math department decides to host a poetry slam:

-------
I was all chill with my bitch addition,
We never needed no damn abstraction,
The raw attraction, all my attention
Was focused there without detraction.

But then I got some raw ministrations
From this other ho subtraction,
I was diversifyin’, my prospects multiplyin’
Like exponentials, and I was flyin’.

But then addition found out about subtraction,
And they was both like pre-menstruation,
They said you can’t be livin’ with all this division,
And I was left with indecision.
-------

I feel better now. I think.

Love the things that computers can do, but hate the machines themselves... that's my motto.

Wow, so, lots of things happen when you don't update for a while.

My mom lost by less than 1,500 votes (maybe it was around 1,100?) in the general election as a democrat against an incumbent in a republican area. She got over 20,000 people to vote for her. As a comparison, the last democrat to run against her opponent only pulled in about 10,000 votes. She is amazing. We're all very proud of her even though she didn't win, and it is more than likely that she will be appointed to some committee or other by the county executive-elect Joe D.

Throat Culture is performing this weekend. I need to learn lines. I need to be funny on purpose. Yay! Terror!

Best Buy had a preferred customer weekend this weekend. It was glorius. I got Spider-Man, Mr. Deeds, End of Evangelion, and the Band of Brothers series on DVD, another Aimee Mann CD, and DDRMAX for PS2 (the only thing that wasn't discounted). The fools used my coupon on all the DVDs and CD, even though most of the DVDs were already discounted, so I got an additional 10% off basically everything even though it was only supposed to be for things at regular price! But they really got me in the end, because the LOTR Special Extended Ed., SW: Ep II, South Park First Season, and The Importance of Being Ernest (and maybe another I'm forgetting) all come out tomorrow on DVD, a day after the sale ends. So, yes, I'll be going back on Tuesday to spend whatever money I have left over from Saturday.

Good thing I already bought my Harry Potter ticket for the Nov 15th 12:01 am show at The Senator when I went there to see Red Dragon(Edward Norton's theater of choice, BTW). I'm reading the British editions of the books for the first time in preparation for that and the fifth book.

Wow, I'm exhausted... I should go to sleep earlier.

Why yes, this is a bit late, thanks for noticing.

And what am I dressed up as on the davecam? An orthodox Jew with a S&M fetish? No, it's the hero of the film I've memorized the most lines to: Indiana Jones! I'm so impressed with myself on this one because, get this, I bought the hat and whip way back in March in DisneyWorld specifically for Halloween this year... how's that for good planning? I'm so dedicated to my craft!

Oh, and while this post may have been too late for All Hallow's Eve, it's just in time for the beginning of the dead, evil spirit-y, magical time between Samhain and the Festival of Yule. See, what I'm doing here is showing off my superficial understanding of another religion... just enough to make it seem like I actually know things. By the way, Wiccans, sorry about any mistakes in that last sentence and, also, go out and find a real religion! Oh, and I liked The Craft and the Harry Potter books even more when I heard how much they offended you.

You might ask: Dave, why do you get so excited over Halloween when it's a pagan holiday? Aren't you, like, Jewish? I mean, isn't that why you were able to make that Jew joke earlier and not get called on it?

Well, yes I am Jewish. But this is actually the reason I like Halloween so much. All you Christian people get to hang pretty lights and sparkly things every year in the winter, and we get to light candles. Whoop de do. But I currently have plastic cauldrons in my apartment with orange lights and fans inside that shine and blow on pieces of fabric... it all comes out looking like fire. Just try and beat that with your stupid plastic Santa and his reindeer set. Plus, you can dress up as anything for Halloween. For Christmas, you're pretty much limited to Santa, an elf/child sweatshop laborer, or putting on one of those paper hats they have in England. Eat it.

But Dave, you insist, that doesn't make any sense... you're just contrasting Halloween and Christmas, and not answering my original question.

Basically, Halloween rules. That's why I celebrate it.