"I'll See You in Fake Court"

As of now, we are officially in production week.  I feel pretty good about the show- we had some bumps in the runthroughs this past week but nothing I haven't seen happen before.  My personal problem is that whenever I start feeling comfortable with my lines is also the time that I start feeling terrible about my delivery.  Oh, and dancing.  That's my problem too.

In spite of all the craziness with rehearsals I had a very successful academic week as well.  Last Wednesday I got to participate in my first fake mediation of a case.  My co-counsel and I dressed up in suits and met with our two also-well-dressed adversaries and a 2L trained in mediation to try and sort out an intentional infliction of emotional distress claim between our two fake clients.  Since negotiation has almost nothing to do with law (it wasn't that difficult of a case and both sides knew the applicable law quite well) and everything to do with psychology, I spent the mediation trying to confuse the other team in order to throw them off.

I did this by (gleefully) calling my own client a dumbass multiple times (during otherwise very formal negotiations- probably not the best thing to do in the real world but very useful here) in the hopes that they would implicitly agree with me so as to undermine their own contentions for one of the elements they had to prove.  My co-counsel and I also agreed beforehand to make several red-herring demands which would sound reasonable but had nothing to do with our client's actual demands.  The plan was to use these as negotiation chips later to bring down the settlement cost, but we also ended up just getting our client extra things that he never asked for.  I think the tactics worked, as I have yet to hear of another team arguing on our case who got a lower settlement (which is what we wanted), and it was also a lot of fun.  

Friday I spent a good fourteen hours in the theater building things and then doing a full run.  Most of my time building was spent with Davia, who was very offended after she internet stalked me and found that I had mentioned Ben L on this blog multiple times without also referencing her.  Among the set crew minions, we are the most competent, so Ken the set designer used us as his Seal Team 6 and sent us to go do the things that actually required creative problem solving to figure out.  Our greatest achievement was figuring out how to move a giant six-foot-diameter globe flat that weighs a couple hundred pounds from the parking garages up to the balcony of the auditorium.  Earlier, Ken had nicknamed Davia "Wonder Woman" and after we finished one of our seemingly-impossible tasks he nicknamed me "Aqua Man."  I heard it as "Awkward Man" and unwisely repeated it back because I was confused.  People seemed to like it more, so now in certain circles I'm Awkward Man.  That should really be no surprise to... anyone.  

Friday night we had a Halloween party at Emily G's house (she is also awesome and one of my new favorite people).  I brought my detective trench-coat and someone suggested I just go ahead and be a flasher as my costume since everyone else actually put some forethought into their outfits.  To anticipate any comments: yes, I was wearing clothes underneath.

And then I hung out with Steph the Pirate Queen, Ben (as Brad Majors), and Ke$ha.

On Saturday I had grand plans for doing my homework for the week, but instead I ended up playing board games and watching movies all day (which I didn't have time for, but which helped relax me for production week).  I shared The Room with Ben and Davia, and immediately afterwards I showed them this and this.  (Thanks, Absi.)  We've since invented a game I'm calling joke-chain, in which the goal seems to be to start a joke by quoting one source and answer that joke with another logically following quotation from another.  Half of mine tend to come from lines in the show because I've reached the point where I can't stop thinking in lines. It's getting bad.  

Sunday we had a tech rehearsal that got us halfway teched with the show, meaning that we'll do another tonight and then have one dress rehearsal tomorrow before putting it in front of an audience on Wednesday.  Chance of randomized disaster on Wednesday is high.  But that's okay, it'll still be fun and the techs are worth it because the set and lights are really beautiful.

After rehearsal, instead of doing homework (which I did eventually get done) we had an hour-long debate about the following picture and all of the possible answers given certain sets of assumptions and meanings of the words.  Every time I forget I'm in law school something like this happens.

Yes, it's obviously not meant to be taken seriously or analyzed.  

We decided to ignore that and take it seriously and analyze it.

Stress-Test

This was the view from the party Friday night.

The roof was equipped with giant gas grills, and the group managed to put away about eighteen pounds of Korean barbecue.  I think I may have eaten three pounds just by myself, because it was delicious.  Our resident Korean (who was the host) also made some amazing yogurt/juice/sake drink combination that I didn't understand but which I nonetheless enjoyed (it tasted as though, if served at a restaurant, it would have fruit and umbrellas in it, so of course I liked it).

On Saturday I went and hung out in Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan, which was really really fun.  They're great areas and sometimes I get landlocked in the Chinatown-Union Station region so it was nice to branch out.  I especially love that DC has multiple shops that only sell cupcakes.  I mean, how can you not love cupcake shops?

Saturday and Sunday involved more set building.  I super-sucked on Saturday and ending up doing more damage to our set than good (I really disappointed my past-tech-director-self) so today I was extra competent to make up for it.  After seven hours down in the parking lot where we do our work without having had anything to eat, I started to fray at the edges just a bit.  It made me realize that the next two weeks are going to be very difficult.  Luckily, I've been in this situation before and know how to navigate it.

I'm fortunate to have put myself through enough ridiculously stressing situations so that I know my limits very well.  The high-water mark, I think, would probably be going through the weeklong rehearsal of Tragedy! for its NYC run.  One night I realized that the show was running ten minutes too long, so after the full day of rehearsals I stayed up all night making cuts, slept for about an hour on a mountain of stuffed animals (which were used in the show), and then did more rehearsals the next day, silently wanting to die the entire time.  And I think that was the second day and it got worse from there. Fun fact: of the couples who were together during Tragedy!- three quarters of them are married or getting married now.  I like to think that if they got through that week, they figured they could get through anything.

The point is- getting through production week of Curtains is going to be about five hundred times easier, so I can relax.

Oh, also, to anyone who is coming to see the show: don't buy your tickets yet, because I can reserve tickets that will be sold to you at the discounted $12 student rate.  Just let me know which day you are coming and I will reserve as many tickets as you like.

Also also, if you'd like to buy an Ad for the playbill, $25 bucks will get you a quarter page and you can just about say anything on it.  Our treasurer has been harassing us to get the word out, so I'll consider this mention to be a job well done.

Onward to hell week, part 1!

I Got a Haircut

I told the barber to make me look like I was a detective in the 50's, but at the same time to make sure I didn't look ridiculous in the present.  I couldn't take any decent pictures of it, so I'm not going to post a picture.  Really, I tend to like my hair a bit longer.  It works for the show, that's the important thing.

I got my very very slight October cold this week.  It hasn't been bad at all, but since I rarely get sick whenever I even have a little sniffle I feel the need to drown myself in Nyquil and Sudafed.  I feel much better now, though the last few weeks of any musical production always start to really wear me out in general.  Of course, the last few weeks of rehearsal are also the most fun, because that's when you get to be really active and creative.  It's a balancing act.  Opening night is two weeks from today! (I should really finish memorizing my lines....)

Everything else has been going pretty great.  Classes have been hitting some high points lately as we've been getting to some more advanced beginner stuff.

To close this brief update, I just wanted to add that I'm glad I've been able to keep in pretty good touch with all of my non-DC/law school friends since I've been here.  You have the ability to turn a good day into a great day with a well-timed text or instant message.  Special thanks to Kay, Brian, and Absi for some especially good ones this week.

There, out in the darkness...

This weekend was excellent.  I won't talk much about Thursday and Friday, beyond saying that on Thursday I was mistaken for a Latino (... really?) and on Friday I had Innocence Project training and went to the best GGSS party so far.  The guy whose house we went to used to be a bartender or something, and he had all of the most professional-looking ingredients that you could possibly have.  It was more like chemical engineering than drink mixing, and it was awe inspiring.  In general, I've found it amazing how accomplished everyone is at everything here.  If someone pulls out a guitar, they actually know how to play it REALLY well.  If someone sits down at a piano, it's a safe bet that you can start a three-hour singalong.  If someone mentions offhand that they used to do pageants, it'll turn out that they were legitimately in the Miss America pageant representing an entire state.  

You were a physics major in undergrad?  Oh, you worked for Fermilab.  Of course you did.  

Also on Friday our director surprised us with beer and cupcakes before rehearsal.  

Aren't we a fun cast?  We're a fun cast.  

The perspective of the shot also makes it looks like I have an enormous hand.

On Saturday morning, like on most Saturday mornings, I had no plans for Saturday evening besides doing homework.  This quickly changed due to Mike's Three Laws of Law School:

1.  Mike will do all his law school homework but will never use it as an excuse not to do something else.

2.  Mike will accept all fun-sounding social invitations, except where such invitations would make the application of the First Law absolutely impossible.

3.  Mike will protect his sleep schedule, as long as such sleep does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.  

So while building something in set crew, one of the girls in the cast asked if anyone would like to go see Les Mis with her and some other people because she had an extra ticket.  For free.  At the Kennedy Center.  I raised my hand and offered to fight anyone who wanted to go more than I did. 

Two minutes later I got a text from Wallace Hornady saying he'd be in DC all afternoon.  I went home, took a shower, put on some theater clothes, and booked it to Chinatown where I met Hornady and Chris L. for dinner before heading over to the show.  

I've wanted to see Les Mis since I first heard the soundtrack sometime during Freshman year of college.  I sang the Stars for my audition for Curtains.  My expectations were extremely high, and I was not disappointed at all.  The set was amazing, the cast was great, they did things with integrated scenic projection that I didn't think were remotely possible (internal monologue: "What's Javert doing on that ledge?  There's no trap door... he's not wearing a harness... NO WAY! WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?").  

After the requisite post-show drink and discussion, I made it back to the apartment around two and got right to sleep in order to start building sets again this morning.  And now it is time for that homework I've been planning on doing... yay learning.    

But before I go, I'm just going to leave this right here....

"Even a Gorilla can Learn Torts!"

Well this week has been pretty darn easy.  Having turned in the memo on Monday evening, I then had one class on Tuesday, one class on Wednesday, and I just finished my two classes today.  Thank you, Columbus Day.

In the evenings of each of the past few days, of course, I've done nothing but homework for the next day.  Usually I get most of it done over the weekend, but there was that memo, so....

I realize that I haven't posted any pictures from class.  This is obviously because it would be odd to take a picture in class.  There was one exception from today.

This is in Torts.  One of the guys had said a few weeks ago that he ran the Philadelphia marathon in a gorilla suit.  The professor told him to wear it to class one day.  He did, and so he got to deliver the procedural history of the case today.  

Also, I know I've mentioned this before, but I love that simply being in law school immediately gives me some sort of legal clout with all of my acquaintances.  I got a text message today from someone asking for help on a breach of contract issue.  I immediately told him that nothing I said could in any way be construed as legal advice but that I would look at it anyway because I enjoy running through hypotheticals.     

Well, one more minor piece of work to do for the week and then it's officially the weekend (which means time to do homework for next week and work on sets!).  I'm going to kick it off by going over to Ben L's before rehearsal since he made bread the other day and I have beer.  Seemed like a good combinations.  

Potluck (And Steaklunch for Dinner)

Friday night we had a "stumble-through" of Act 1, off book.  Did I have my lines learned?  Yes, yes I did.  How did I do it?  I invited Ben L., who is also in the play and makes wonderful homemade bread, over to run lines with me four hours before rehearsal.  Then we drank a lot of beer while running lines.  Apparently, beer is great for memorization.  I was the only lead who never had to call for a line.

Afterwards we had our standard crazy lawyer/theater-people party and then I went and hung out with Tyler Brown and Palmer, who was up visiting from Miami and told wonderful stories about being a real lawyer.

Saturday and Sunday mornings I spent most of my time in the parking garage at GGSS's designated set building area.  In the twelve hours total that I was there over the weekend, I build four eight by four by 18" towers, two four by three by 18" tower-toppers, and one window.  It has now been explained to me that my ability to identify powertools and hold them correctly means that I will most likely be forced into the position of master carpenter for the rest of my three years here.  Yay.  I quit being a tech director just so I could come to law school and be a tech director.

Saturday evening I went shopping and helped prepare for a potluck on Sunday evening being hosted by some other section five folks.  I chopped many herbs into very small pieces.  Then I chopped many raisins into very small pieces.  Then I chopped many carrots into less small but still very manageable pieces.  This was all put into a pie filling and used to create the most delicious Moroccan pie.  Also present at the potluck was the Korean equivalent to cheeseburgers:

If cheeseburgers were made of noodles and were super-spicy.  Everyone started out with hot apple cider to drink, and one by one the weak among us got up to get glasses of ice water. (I was among 

Asparagus with balsamic dressing and fresh-grated parmesan cheese. 

Because we're hipsters.

And pumpkin cupcakes.  Yum.

 And that's the Moroccan pie I helped with in the foreground.

Mmmm.... spicy food I don't understand.

After the potluck, Liadan and I introduced Firefly to Justin.  The show, not the drink.  Though both are good.

Today I spent all day working on a memo.  1600 word limit.  1600 words exactly after seven hours of sitting at my computer and citing a bunch of cases.  Since we're starting on Tuesday and ending on Thursday, this week should be pretty easy...

Steaklunch

I forgot everything else that I may have posted today, because Ben and I just finished up our first Steaklunch, and it was glorious.  We've been looking forward to this for... like, four days now.

This morning I woke up at seven AM and went on a six mile run, because you have to EARN Steaklunch.

After my run I pulled the steak out of the fridge and put it into a bag full of beer.  Because Steaklunch takes patience and forethought.  

Immediately after class Ben and I took a jaunty walk back to our room to turn the skillet to 11 and toss on the steak.  

While the steak was in the oven (after being seared) Ben showed me a new way to lightly char pita bread, which we then had with some hummus as a side dish.  Side dishes are very important in Steaklunch.

And here comes the steak!

Ben is so excited to start Steaklunch.  Note that we have beers.  For lunch.  The very beer with which we marinated the steak.  We would not normally have beer for lunch, but this, after all, is Steaklunch. Steaklunch is what exceptions were invented for.

And after a good Steaklunch, we had some frozen grapes.  Because that's how we do it.

Also I learned some law today.  But that was WAY less important.

Edit- I received a voicemail from Josh L. shortly after posting this.  I greatly appreciated his sentiments and he said I could transcribe it here:

"Hey Mike, I just wanted to call and congratulate you on your Steaklunch.  As a man, I feel like it's important every once in a while to reward yourself with the warm flesh of a cow.  And the way you prepared it and enjoyed your beers at lunch... I just felt like it deserved a personal congratulations.  I hope you proceed in all areas of your life in as manly a way as you have today."

Also, I just got out of Torts, where I won a copy of a book for being the most useful in class today.  I was voted most useful by the rest of the class through unanimous assent after one girl said "Mike wrote on the board today...." and then trailed off.  The only other nominee was Steve Jobs.