GRABBINGSAND

The end of the year brings lists and this is mine. I fell behind on my reading and darkened the door of few movie houses, so this list of fifteen will focus on the sounds of 2009 as I heard them.

• 15. Jon Hopkins – Insides. Almost as good as 2007’s Untrue from Burial. Almost. When the machines take over, they will march rather gracefully in time to this. (Listen to “Wire”)
• 14. Alela Diane – To Be Still. There is a certain beauty to spareness, to starkness. Alela Diane has a voice from another time. (Listen to “Dry Grass & Shadows”)
• 13. Tanya Morgan – Brooklynati. Tanya Morgan is not a girl. Tanya Morgan is a rap group. And if you’ve lost hope for hip-hop, Tanya Morgan might restore it. (Listen to “So Damn Down”)
• 12. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion. This album is at the top of so many 2009 lists. Deservedly so. Like a latter day Pet Sounds. (Listen to “My Girls”)
• 11. Noisettes – Wild Young Hearts. Not every album has to be profound or Earth-shattering. Sometimes, you just need something to hum through your day. (Listen to “Wild Young Hearts”)
• 10. Ben Folds – Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella! Songs by Ben Folds, produced by Ben Folds, performed by college a cappella groups, often sounding much better than Ben Folds himself. There, I said it. (Listen to “Army”)
• 09. Green Day – 21st Century Breakdown. The almost-as-good follow-up to American Idiot (2004), wherein a punk trio uses concept rock to define the state of our national union and does it wonderfully. (Listen to “Peacemaker”)
• 08. Lee Fields – My World. Did you love Amy Winehouse? Really? Then the phone is ringing. It’s Mr Lee Fields. You should take that call. (Listen to “Love Comes And Goes”)
• 07. St Vincent – Actor. This is a collection of twisted pseudo-lovesongs, all orchestrated to (very) loosely resemble the scores of classic Disney cartoons. Really. (Listen to “Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood”)
• 06. God Help The Girl – God Help The Girl. Imagine Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian woke up with the brilliant idea of making a film in reverse, starting with a joyful soundtrack of mostly Belle & Sebastian covers. This is that. (Listen to “Funny Little Frog”)
• 05. The Clientele – Bonfires on the Heath. If Animal Collective produced this year’s Pet Sounds, then this is the Odessey and Oracle of 2009. (Listen to “Harvest Time”)
• 04. Art Brut – Art Brut Vs. Satan. I was not a true believer until I saw them live. Now? I believe. “Bring. Me. Coffee!” (Listen to “Alcoholics Unanimous”)
• 03. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career. I want our next NFDC show to look as deliriously charming as this album sounds. (Listen to “French Navy”)
• 02. Imogen Heap – Ellipse. She invited any and all to witness the creative process behind this album, building anticipation through participation rather than hype. This is the future of making music. (Listen to “Swoon”)
• 01. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone. As soon as I heard the first track of this album, I knew it would be my number one for the year. Nobody has a voice like Neko Case, and that voice is a force of nature. Who better to sing a love song from the perspective of a spurned and vengeful funnel-cloud? (Listen to “This Tornado Loves You”)

Now it’s your turn to tell me what I missed.

Today was much like yesterday, only with a bit more standing and walking about.

I’ve yet to leave the house. I’m okay with this.

New developments … well, you know how I mentioned that instead of gauze packing, my face is full of this gel stuff? Right. So when the doctor spoke to Nikki after my surgery, he told her that this gel stuff will disintegrate as the days go on. And that I can expect it to come out in bits. Some bits might be bigger than others. This morning, I met one of these larger pieces. This was shocking, albeit pleasantly so once I had determined that this was actually a chunk of gel and not something vital to my continued well-being. You know, like a thyroid or something.

Also, today brought with it spontaneous teardrops. Without warning, a tear will form and race down my cheek. Big ones, much like those that streaked down the face of Iron Eyes Cody.

What else … oh, yes. Sneezing. “With your mouth open,” is the recommendation for sneezing after surgery, but still, every sneeze is greeted with a mildly panicked “Is my nose still attached?” So far, so good. My nose remains where it is.

The pain is still manageable to negligible. Mostly I can breathe however I choose, which is an improvement over last night. So as the day rounds out, I’m annoyed mostly by the fact that my nose won’t stop running. Unpleasant, but hey … I can deal.

Today has been full of sleep.

Made the switch from Percocet to Tylenol for my pain management needs today. Frankly, the pain has been far less than I expected, so Tylenol is doing just fine. (This paragraph brought to you by Tylenol.)

Also, commenced with the other prescribed doses of antibiotics (3 doses a day) and steroids (6 today, diminishing after). Fortunately, eating has not been a problem. Soup and sandwiches, toast and such, nothing too extravagant. Water, more hot tea and Diet Coke, though for the latter, I did ask Nikki to get some straws while she was out to get a few groceries. Something about leaning back too much isn’t all that appealing.

But more than anything else, I’ve been spending a lot of time with saline. I feel a bit like a conch shell. On the beach. At high tide. Strange as it is, I had a better time of breathing through my nose yesterday than I have today. This evening has been especially rough on that count. Like most people, I happen to like having the option of breathing through either my nose or mouth. And no, the irony is not lost on me. I’m going through what is basically a simulation of the worst head cold ever en route to recovery from sinus surgery.

On the plus side, my face is not full of packing. Instead, my surgeon employed a kind of post-operative gel that serves the same purpose. It’s from the future or something. And while I know there are stitches of some kind inside my nose, but I’ve not seen them … or really sought them out.

All in all, still doing okay. Here’s hoping tonight’s sleep is better than last.

Today was the day.

I’d not taken any anti-inflammatories or herbal supplements for 14 days. Why the ban on Advil and vitamins? They make you more prone to bleeding, apparently. This wasn’t too much of a hardship. Tylenol was still allowed and I just had a few glasses of orange juice here and there instead of Emergen-C.

I followed doctor’s orders and didn’t eat or drink anything after midnight last night. I was concerned that I might be ravenous this morning, or at least thirsty, but it wasn’t so bad. Nikki was kind and ate breakfast downstairs while I was up in the office.

I was scheduled to arrive at 8am to do some last minute paperwork, so we left the house at 7am. We like being early. Unfortunately, traffic on GA400 conspired against us. A injury wreck at Exit 6, another on the median at Exit 5. Still another on a possible back-road alternative. In the end, some re-navigation got us to the office at 8:30am. But still, and this is a testament to the readiness of the staff, they had all of my paperwork ready and I was prepped and good to go by 9am.

Details? We’ll get to that tomorrow.

I’m going to cut this short. Some twelve hours after coming out of surgery, I’m feeling rather okay. My throat is a bit sore from the intubation. My nose is a bit sore because … well … that’s the whole reason why I was there in the first place. The rest of my face is not so bad either.

Typing for too long, however, is making me feel slightly ill. So … I’ll post more tomorrow.

On more than one occasion, I’ve blogged about breathing or my lack thereof. It is no secret that I have an uneasy relationship with my sinuses. With every passing year, I’m guaranteed at least one or two sinus infections, either glancing or full-blown. And while I love the feel of spring, the arrival of pollen always fills me with dread.

When I’m not entirely ill, I take allergy meds to make my life just a little easier. This also helps those around me, my co-workers and my loved ones, because I am cranky as hell when I’m not feeling well. Ask anybody. They’ll tell you.

Allegra-D keeps the affects of Atlanta’s air at bay (at least under normal conditions), while Flonase acts directly on my sinuses to make them relax. I take these everyday and have done so for at least as long as I’ve held a job with benefits to allow it. Before Allegra, I took Zyrtec, though it was unkind to my stomach. Before Zyrtec, I took Claritin, which worked only most of the time. Neither of those were available over-the-counter at the time, so during those periods when prescriptions weren’t available, I was not above accepting samples or even the leftovers of other’s prescriptions. When your ability to breathe normally is in question, you tend to develop the humility required to get by on the kindness of others.

Earlier this year, I was hit with what felt like a familiar cold. I stayed home from work on January 20 to try and get over, treating myself to chicken soup and news footage from the Inauguration. The next morning, I went to the doctor and had my suspicions confirmed of another sinus infection. I was prescribed a course of antibiotics and sent on my way.

A month or so later, I fell victim to another apparent sinus infection, only this time it was accompanied by a bout of conjunctivitis. I’d never experienced pink eye before and do not wish to do so again. Ever. But as before, I was prescribed another round of antibiotics and life went on.

But nothing was really helping. Not only was I dealing with the usual issues of congestion and feeling run-down, but there was this tingling in my cheek, like someone had stretched a ragged power-line between my ear and my nose. So I decided to get serious about my situation. (more…)

My experiments in vlogging continue.

I’m using a borrowed Kodak Zi6, a decent little handheld that does 720p. That might be more definition than anyone needs, particularly since I’m still getting used to shooting myself. With each subsequent video, I’m managing less all-chin-all-the-time content.

If I didn’t have a show in the works for North Fulton Drama Club, I wouldn’t be doing this. I love my day-to-day life, but nobody needs to watch me as I contemplate what to make for dinner or when next to mow the lawn. But when I have a project on my plate like Macbeth, my life gets a bit more interesting. When else would I get to film friends new and old as they learn to fight one another on stage? Also, this is a perfect way to share both the thrill and the anxiety of producing not just theatre, but Shakespearean theatre done outdoors.

In the first video, I covered fight choreography. In the second, I cover a week and a half of rehearsal, hopefully showing just how much can develop in such a short amount of time.

Director’s Vlog – August 31 through September 11, 2009 – Time Flies from Thomas Strickland on Vimeo.

And in the third, I start the week with a North Georgia roadtrip and end the week with a torrential downpour.

Director’s Vlog – September 14 through September 17, 2009 – Fair Is Foul from Thomas Strickland on Vimeo.

For the curious, we did manage to open Macbeth on Friday night to a sizable and appreciative crowd. Saturday night was less successful, as the rain was just too insistent for us to push beyond intermission. We run for two more weeks, starting again tomorrow night. The weather predictions for the week have been dire, particularly in light of the floods that plagued North Georgia on Monday … and yet the sun is shining this morning.

So maybe we’ll get lucky. Or maybe some of my actors will pray once again to Saints Barbara and Genesius. Either way, I’ll take whatever break we can get.

Director’s Vlog – August 30, 2009 – Fight Call from Thomas Strickland on Vimeo.

It’s a good question. I’m not the first to ask and I won’t be the last.

As kind of an object lesson, I’m posting this entry from my Blackberry. I can remember thinking all I really needed to become a more prolific blogger was a more portable, more immediate platform. Something that would put some activity behind the polite threat of “I’m blogging this” — you know, like the t-shirt.

But what I’m finding is a meeting of that immediate need through Twitter — which updates my Facebook status simultaneously. In seconds, I can act upon an observation, capture an associative thought and be on my merry way. And all of this done in under 140 characters.

Does this mean all of my previous posts were undeserving of the extra words and attention? Not necessarily. What this means to me is I’ve a choice to make. I can ask myself honestly “Is this thought worth the time and effort to give it flesh and muscle? Or is it enough to share only the skeleton?” I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the life of reply and retweet warranted by even the most mundane of my online comments.

So if I’m honest, Twitter is probably good for my blog and therefore good for my readers.

(But if that’s so, then why has it been a month or so since my last good post?)

Lazy Caturday Cat Fight

Grey cat wants to nap. White cat wants to wrestle.