Saccharine Thoughts

Why, what's this? Well well, it looks like me. On a stage. With a mic in my hand. Yes indeed, last Friday I drug my semi-sick self out to fulfill #11 on my list of 24 Things to Do. This actually makes the 3rd time I've sang karaoke in the past month - the first two times were warm-ups at Ego's, where I assuredly dazzled with my renditions of Total Eclipse of the Heart and The Donna's Take It Off . This was a whole other playing field because, in case you didn't notice, there's a real live band behind me. Those are the Dead Motley Sex Maidens, who facilitate Austin karaoke enthusiasts in fulfilling their exhibitionist needs through live band karaoke. Somehow I convinced myself to play lead singer through Poison's Talk Dirty to Me . Can I get a holy crap please? In case anyone is wondering why this is such a big deal in my little head, it's because through most of my life I was more or less socially handicapped by paralyzing stage fright. We're not ta...

As you may have gathered from my latest to-do lists, I bumped a few projects so as to devote time and energy to creating a costume for a friend. Well dear audience, here are the spoils of my labor: Jon's Time Sorcerer costume for a new improv series, Guilds of Steel. I'm especially proud of this because I didn't actually have a pattern to work off of, just a picture from an online costume shop that he'd picked out. Guilds is a serial improv series chronicling the online lives of characters from an MMORPG (World of Warcraft, anyone?) and the offline lives of the players. The show has been playing every weekend since May 22, with recurring characters and all sorts of plots twists and legendary quests. I've been to at least one show each weekend and I am SO proud of my friends who have been involved in this; they were even recognized in the Austin Chronicle last week, which is a pretty big stinking deal! The makeup for the show has again been mastered by Jason Vines...

This year has flown by so fast, I haven't even noticed that it's actually summertime. Well, other than the sweltering Texas heat and the wondrous lack of university students around town... I kicked off my realization of official summerhood with a movie last night. Each summer 101X and the Alamo Drafthouse team up to present Movies in the Park - a series of movies shown on an inflatable drive-in movie screen, sans the cars. Instead, picture a field of Austinites, their kids, their dogs, blankets, lawnchairs and generally a little booze. That's what my Wednesday looked like as we attended this year's first movie of the series, which happened to be Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark . I think I've seen that movie 30 times now, and I haven't gotten tired of it yet. Give me 32, and I might sing a dif ferent tune.

*self-punch in the ovaries, per order of Jack* Today was spent reveling in Renaissance fun at Scarborough Faire in Waxahachie. We had a group of 10 people meet up out there, and I've been led to believe that everyone had a good time. That's what I call one hell of a Memorial Day :) Half the crew: Marc, Topping, Kristin, Kacey and Kareem. Click for the rest on Flickr!