I have the day off today! Too bad my body decided not to fall asleep until 1, woke up around 3, woke up around 5.... My apartment is officially frigid now (especially the bedroom) and I piled every blanket on and just could not get comfortable. Blech. I finally gave up and got up at 10 and walked around the house for an hour and a half. So I exercised, at least.

At noon, I took a workshop on making your stories funnier. I was a bit disappointed in it, as: (a) it 'was advertised as an hour and a half. (b) She kept saying it was an hour (c) She was done in about 40 minutes and then it was advertising and questions time (d) The entire workshop was "write down an embarrassing story in a minute and then four people get told how to punch it up." Which, fine, but .... I dunno, it was less than I was expecting? I will say that she offered an excellent deal if you wanted individual coaching, but I dunno what I'd be coached on so eh.....
Anyway, her tips were to bring in characters, use names, get specific details and places, give a voice to people in it, give names to things. You can make trauma/a dramatic moment in your life funny. And the funniest thing is just the truth: "The truth is what really makes you a star." I agree with that. She said that she did a one woman show 16 years ago about her mother getting cancer and it really helped her. Also, she said this about hecklers: "I ask them, do they wanna sleep with me, and they shut up.

I will note that a synchronicity came up, as she said, "my friend Scott signed up...." sigh. And the guy's name in the chat was "Scott Steele," as in the detective show he and I like..... oy!

Because I have nothing else to do on my day off, I am watching Operation Christmas Drop.
I love how they play "White Christmas" while filming a beach in Guam.
Apparently the plot is about some lady who wants to cut a military base because they drop Christmas gifts to remote islands. How Grinchy. Erica the congressional aide is sent in to investigate. Hot blonde cargo pilot Andrew is designated to deal with her.
Andrew's "ukulele Santa" photo is apparently infamous now.
She has to track him down at the beach while he's surfing and is a wee bit snitty about this. They do Sherlock Scans on each other.
Oh, his call sign is "CLAWS," not CLAUS, har.
"Let the island work its magic" is Andrew's plan for all of this.
GOOD LORD THAT IS A HUGE CGI GECKO. I don't remember seeing 'em that big in Hawaii. Or that.....green... or fake....
Andrew's idea of a prank is to give Erica a lot of binders instead of a hard drive.
This movie makes me so homesick for Christmas in Hawaii. It's absolutely beautiful. I love how Netflix is going against the Hallmark rules and doing a Christmas movie on a (Christmas) island. It's soooooo pretty.
Meet Mayor Sampson, the richest and most cranky/cheap dude on the island, I guess. Erica has been dubbed "Blitzen" for some reason? "I pushed for Grinch, but nobody went for it," some other random says.
Andrew points out that the Christmas drop is ENTIRELY DONATION, not taxpayer dollars, and all the military personnel is volunteering on their off-hours, and the fuel/planes also work for training.... Seriously, why anyone would bitch about this, I cannot. "I'm not the Grinch," she says. She sees the benefits, but how does it help run the base?
Erica goes to dinner with the higher-ups at their house. The congresswoman is insisting on dropping the Guam base, period. She thinks using military equipment to do it is DAMNING and that is what she wants out of Erica's report, DAMMIT.
Ugh. Andrew takes Erica to an island and she just passes the kids her entire bag and all of her stuff, like her scrunchies.... That's....I dunno? I assume someone would have objections to this? Oh, wait.
Erica requests a song that will help her forget she's half a world away at Christmas. Andrew makes up his own beachy lyrics. Palm-leaf wreaths sounds fun.
"You've never been Christmas snorkeling?" Uhhhhhhh....
Erica isn't in the mood to go home for Christmas since her mom's dead and her dad remarried.
Per Hallmark tradition, there's a possible Big Promotion and Quick Deadline going on.
I like this "Christmas in the sand" song they are playing . Hallmark wouldn't do that...or Christmas snorkeling.
Andrew ALWAYS has an answer for ALL of this stuff she asks about, like "where'd these Christmas trees come from?"
There is....coconut snow.
CLAWS stands for "Can't Leave Anyone Without Santa" and this is cited as "why he can't keep a girl" and "why he never goes home for Christmas."
"But what about the generators?" Erica has an idea, approaches the mayor with a business proposition, gets 3 generators.
Oh, great, Christmas TYPHOON. The drop may need to be postponed...or just, y'know, do it NOW, Erica says. Uh, isn't that dangerous, say the experts?
"Well, I don't sing well enough to finish the rest of this song," one guy doing karaoke honestly.
OH NO, THE BOSS LADY JUST SHOWED UP ALL MAD 'N SHIT AND SHE CAUGHT ERICA IN A SANTA HAT. Erica still wants to do the drop anyway, presumably since the typhoon is about to blow over. I....think that is what she said in military language? Oooooh, Erica just blew off her boss to her face. SO MUCH FOR THAT PROMOTION.
Everyone enjoys the drop, including the cranky congresswoman. She and Erica make up and more or less agree to take the base off the list, I'm assuming (they'll.... I dunno, make budget cuts to the gym or something?)
Erica somehow got all of Andrew's relatives to the island for a visit. She'll go visit hers for New Year's. They make out.
I do wonder how this relationship is gonna work since they literally live in very different places.... Okay, maybe it doesn't work out. They seem like nice enough people, though, so who knows. Anyway, I ended up liking this a lot better than I expected to. Go figure. I guess someone is trying to hint for a sequel?

On a related note: Every Hallmark Movie Ever BWAHAHAHAHAHAH.

Rehearsal: Cheyenne is singing "I Never Knew Love Like This Before."

"I don't have any stud earrings." -Karen
"She has a thousand earrings and not one stud!" -Tom
"I can't operate them, just ask anyone who knows me." -Karen

"Hello. It's Mac, the stuff sayer."
"It looks like you've been running around the fair, making out with your boyfriend. See, there' s the blush!" -Sean to Illy
"-in your Zoom boxes, which are not on Zoom and not boxes.....
"Spadoni's calling them meat crates." -Mac
"My snack is prop corn." -Katherine.
Kearsten wants a picture of all of Katherine's snacks.

Paige's ad-libs were taken away, SIGH. I loved those.

There was the dreaded "stand there in your boxes while we calibrate....whatever" for quite awhile, I got fed up and sat down and they didn't ever call on me, so I ....guess it's okay?

"Katherine, you are released from your box and can take pictures of snacks if you like." -Kearsten
"I just like you all so much." -Kearsten

"Bucket DANCE!" Kearsten (presumably Riley was doing something with his bucket I couldn't see)
"That's a sweet bucket, Riley, can it do a wheelie? Can it do any jumps?" -Sean
"Please duplicate Riley's excellent bucket dance." -Kearsten to Karen

"Sorry, I'm just learning to use the computer now." -Kearsten
"A little coup de trough magic. We love coup de trough magic." -Kearsten

Anyway, we did go through the entire show and finish (most of) the blocking. I had a few lines cut for physicality reasons, they will send me a drawing of where the heck all the people are so I know where to look at them, and hopefully the scene where I go after my son's ears will work out?

After that, I finally got up the nerve to email people in Winters about the show with the link (I'm not sure if Linda ever got to that or not, or if she did she didn't cc me). So that's done, anyway. Whether or not any of them want to come is up to them, but I tried.

previous entry - next entry
archives - current entry