Hotdish Hallelujah and Tall Ships

We had our pre-brush-up rehearsal "cast party" tonight with like ten different versions of the Minnesota standard fare. There was some good ol' comfort food and six different bars I had to try. I'm still stuffed to the gills. It was out in the yard in perfect (70s) weather, and it just so happened that one of the tall ships was heading to Duluth just off Artist's Point.

That thing was flying. Dennis Bradley and (I think) Stephano Man went out to meet them in the "Black Hjordis" as little Andrew likes to call it. They only had half of their sails halfway raised, and they just flew by those tiny boats. Maybe with the fuel situation like it is, shipping may have to go with wind power again. It sure would be more of a "beautyway." Blog entry over.

Gone to see Craig

Instead of the H.S. reunion, which could only be upsetting, I'm heading over to Remer to see Ole Bodson, whom I haven't seen for 19 years. He's camping out with his family (I remember his sister Sherri made thin sliced potatoes roasted in tinfoil with Laury's Seasoned Salt over there at Mabel Lake campground.) I have to bring some rice. I also have to take Kostya, the 19 year-old boy that lives with us, to work at 5;45 AM. Guess I'd better quit this then. Should be fun. Then I have to come back in time to make hotdish before our brush-up rehearsal at six o'clock the next day. It's tater-tot, with Eye-talian sausage and Jalapeno sausage. The oars are coming soon, I hope, from Island Oars in Nanaimo, B.C. I'm hoping I can pick them up at the truck terminal in Thunder Bay. The boat is at the shop, because the motor overheats. I can't even get my own website up on this stupid dish here, on either computer.

Non-Beautyway Enterprise

So now "How to Talk Minnesotan the Musical" is up and running, then. I'm playing the part of Miller Johnson at the Grand Marais Playhouse. It's the first musical I've ever done. We're having fun with it, now that we're done struggling. To quote Miller himself, "It's hard. It's hard!" One number, "If a Guy" kept us guessing right up through the opening. It's sort of a silly thing, but clever in terms of identifying how language directly reflects the character(s) of the culture that uses it. It's a great hardworking cast and band and crew I'm lucky enough to do this with. "Though, Yahbut...'nough said!