post 322. favorites of 2006.

10. the hives, tussels in brussles. there are two dvds on my top ten list; since i put them on as background, it's the same thing - to me - as putting on a cd and listening to it. i'm just not watching it. this dvd has a good amount of tyrannasaurus hives on it, which was such an underrated album last year. best live show out there.

9. the sword, age of winters. nice riffousness. metal up your proverbial ass.

8. uv rays, night of the living dudes. best show in rochester. flying beer bottles, the uneasy sense that at any minute the place might collapse into one big brawl, mark falling down a flight of stairs. and the band not knowing about it until twenty minutes later.

7. peeping tom, self-titled. there i was, eagerly anticipating my order for "firecracker," the acting debut of mike patton, where he plays a crazy nut who rapes his brother as well as a crazy nut who runs, like, this circus. then i watched about half of the movie, turned it off, took it out of the dvd player, and wondered how i might be able to surgically remove the parts of my brain that had been exposed to it. at least peeping tom was awesome.

6. beastie boys, awesome: i fucking shot that! dvd. dude. don't tell the charming and delightful ms. westra, but i've never been to a beastie boys concert i liked. but this? i went to the little about ten million times to see this movie. (ok, 2 times.) now that it's on video, i can watch and watch.

5. tv on the radio, return to cookie mountain. when david bowie's singing backup? you have to know you're doing something right.

4. gnarls barkley, st. elsewhere. i think rolling stone (for once) got it right: "crazy" is the best prince song prince never wrote.

3. decemberists, the crane wife. "the island" - all three hours of it - is the bomb. and "shankill butchers" is the bomb. and the ten thousand parts of the title track? the bomb.

2. scissorfight, jaggernaut. my proclamation: no other band on this planet riffs as hard as scissorfight. i saw them - finally - this summer and get all goose-bumpy just thinking about it. just fifteen people, standing in front of iron lung, head-banging. awesome.

1. vernon reid and masque, other true self. duh. it's vernon reid, the reason i left the confines of my basement and all that dungeons and dragons and went to rock and roll. his depeche mode cover is, in my opinion, the best thing he's ever done, and his radiohead is a close second. that is, behind all that living colour stuff.

post 321. out at richmond's.

post 320. classes end at brockport.

the semesters just keep getting better at brockport, and i've been very lucky to be able to teach these kids. can't wait until next semester; i'll have a regular improv and an advanced-level course.

in lieu of a final exam, i have my classes perform scenes for the last two weeks, giving them an opportunity to show me they understand the four rules of improv i've taught them over the course of the semester (a mixture of rules from dan diggles' improv for actors and listening to sean daniels.)

lines from the past two weeks' worth of final scenes, which, taken out of context, seems almost as funny as the scenes they came from:

"4006! you're all fucking dead!"
"what a chaos."
"i've come to return."
"did i just hear the head elf is a dick?"
what about you, cactus?"

in the 11:30 class' final round of "man overboard," it came down to an exciting round of "rock papers scissors infinity" between john p and ryan s.

paul s and i share a tender moment.

the 11:30 class.

it's been really awesome having students from semesters past stop by, say hello and play. here, jr. gets ready to play with the 9:45 class.

scott b, jessie d and katy k do a sign language interpreter scene. with the 9:45 class being much smaller, we were able to get everyone into a bunch of final scenes and blow off the last class with a bunch of games.

the 9:45 class. good kids.