Final Fantasy

Have you heard of Final Fantasy?  No, I’m not talking about the video game, I’m talking about the Musician from Toronto.  If you haven’t heard of him, you might want to take a look.  He’s a classically trained musician, who creates pop songs using just his voice, his violin, and some looping equipment.

Here’s a video (yeah, I know.  More video) that shows him in action, covering Joanna Newsom’s “Peach, Plum, Pear”.  Watching him work is really quite facinating, as you can see him start to play a riff and then start it looping with one of the switches at his feet.

Take a gander:

[youtube]Q02ompQhtY8[/youtube]

Ham-Lego

I’ve shown this to some people, but not with everyone. This was shared with the Cast during rehearsals for Hamlet and its just to funny not to share.

I present to you: Ham-Lego. That’s right. Hamlet (abridged)…with LEGO.

[youtube]HuoeRqJ9NcQ[/youtube]

Productivity!

Yesterday was a very productive day.  With no rehearsal or performance, I was somewhat afraid that I’d end up sort of…lost: not really knowing what to do but really unable to actually do anything.  Fortunately, that did not happen, and I was able to get a significant bit of writing done.  The play that I am currently working on keeps busting my ass.  I go from complete writers block to having everything flow like it was being spoken directly to me by the characters.  I am actually making some real headway into getting this thing finished.

I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up though: this play is a long way from performance quality.  When this rough draft is done, its going to rough.  Its likely to be overly talky and with some questionable sections.  That’s what a “rough draft” is for though.  I tend to write like that: get it all out on paper (regardless of quality) and then go back through for the next draft to excise the crap, keep the good, and rearrange things to make the story - and characters - more coherent.

Since I am back on the old 4-midnight shift tonight, I plan to do some writing today during the day (which is something I hope to make a habit, so that I can keep sane while I work this crappy shift).

And so…to it!