My new blog is at a different address, due to technical difficulties with the 'superalive' one. Here it is:

http://jasonvandebrake.blogspot.com

Listen, I know not many people stop by here anymore, but if you do, please note that I've switched to blogspot. You can now find me at

http://www.superalive.blogspot.com

See you there!

Okay, so I haven't updated in ages. I am bad.

Amanda is going to finish her final paper today. Then her presentation is tomorrow. Then that's it. She just has to go to a couple graduation ceremonies and she's done. She'll have her MA degree in Performance Studies from NYU. Wow that was fast. We've been in New York for a year and it seems like we've been here for a month. It also seems like we've been here for five years. Kind of a paradox. Like how Amanda says she's both scared and unbelievably excited to be finished. I understand that.

I'm beginning my last full week of work here at DB -- next week I'm off Thursday and Friday for Amanda's grad -- the week after that I'm working for four days and then -- I'm finished, too! Things are winding up here in New York.

I was just looking through old 'lists' on www.mcsweeneys.net and I found this one which made me laugh hard.

I N F R E Q U E N T L Y
A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S .

BY JT DOBBS

- - - -

1: Can I top off your warm salt water?

2: Does this sound infected?

3: Who's her favorite bass player?

4: Why is your spleen like that?

5: Is he going to perpetuate that misconception all night?

6: But how do you get it to float next to the VCR?

7: Why brown?

8: Did you say "Massachusetts?"

9: Was that when you noticed my uncle's birthmark?

10: When does the next Frenchman go by here?

11: Who said anything about yachting?

12: Isn't that the guy from Psychedelic Furs?

13: Why was that written?

14: What's with the hedge trimmer?

15: Could you please stop looking at my bowling trophy?

16: You call yourself a witch doctor?

17: Couldn't you at least have buried the can opener?

18: What do you know from black lung?

19: More duck sauce?

20: Who dat talkin' 'bout beatin' dem Bengals?

Did you watch the finale of The Apprentice last night? I did. And I'm slightly suspicious of the whole enterprise. Here's why:

First, when Bill, the winner, was shown leaving the studio and getting into his new car after the show last night, it looked like it was raining -- and if it wasn't raining, the streets and car were both definitely wet. This was supposed to be a LIVE shot. The thing is, I live in Manhattan and it hadn't rained since the day before that was shot. What's the deal there?

Also (and this is the big one for me): Why ON EARTH would Kwame have picked archrivals Omarosa and Heidi to be on his team for the final challenge??! There were not two less compatible candidates in the whole game and it made no logical sense for Kwame to choose Omarosa by herself, much less both she and Heidi. Why did he do it? I will tell you why. Because the producers told him to.

This is a crooked, crooked business.

First of all it's sunny. That's huge. Very exciting. Now, four red-hot items:

1. This morning at about 6:20 I was in a kind of half-sleeping state and heard what sounded like a pitcher of water being poured on the floor of our apartment. Amanda must have been sort of awake, too, because she said, "What the heck was that?" It wasn't really enough to make me get out of bed just yet, but it was puzzling. When I did get out of bed a few minutes later, I searched the apartment (that's also the weird part -- there's virtually no space in our studio apartment that isn't visible from the bed) and found nothing. I am convinced it was a ghost.

2. Good celebrity sighting on my way home from work yesterday -- John Leguizamo with a female friend, walking on Irving Place. He had a cup of coffee and was wearing a nifty vest/jacket thing.

3. The soundtrack to today is "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey. I haven't even heard it recently but I'm re-reading "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" (which, no matter what Amanda says, is a great book) and that song is mentioned early in the second chapter. Great song, better book.

4. I need to work on developing patience. I'm finding myself getting very frustrated and almost angry at slow people -- even old ones! -- in the subway. You're going down the stairs, people are zooming along, anxious to get home from work (or whatever), and there's a four foot six little old lady going .02 mph ahead of you. FRUSTRATING! The thing is, she can't help it. She has to take the subway like everyone else -- what's the difference if I get home two minutes later? Annoyance may be justifiable, but I have no license to let my emotions go any further than that. Patience. I will give myself a stern talking to.

Tonight I work a DB event for the graduates of the Carnagie-Mellon *something* School of Business. I can't remember...it has its own name. A nice way to get a few overtime hours in. It will likely consist of handing out some nametags, lifting and moving some boxes, and standing around sipping a coke, waiting to see if anyone needs anything.

Don't forget to read my new music review of "Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State" by Sufjan Stevens at catapult magazine.

By the way, if anyone who stops by this journal is interested in writing a review for catapult mag, let me know. I'm the review editor and we're always accepting submissions. Just e-mail me at jasonvb@cultureisnotoptional.com.

I know only about two people check this journal, but I still feel guilty about not posting, for some reason. Here's what's new:

Saw The Passion of the Christ on Good Friday. It's highly worth your while -- but as a pastor that my mom has been conversing with about the film has said, don't feel guilty about not seeing it if you're hesitant or unwilling to endure two hours of extreme violence. It is certainly the most violent film I have ever seen. But it is a fine film.

Went to a Yankees game (for free!), courtesy of Deutsche Bank, on Saturday. Sat. was one of the few nice days we've had recently. But the Bombers lost to the White Sox. Maybe it won't be such a great year after all. Thanks for nothing, A-Rod.

Tried to go to the Whitney Musuem Biennial, but the line to get in was practically around the block and there's nothing more irritating than trying to experience a sound installation exhibit in a ninety-degree room packed with people and a two-year old screaming in your ear. So I didn't go.

Still trying to figure out where we can live this summer. And waiting to hear back from UCI about on-campus grad housing.

So we had a couple of beautiful 70 degree days and then WHAM. Rain and cold for a week. All because of the jet stream! Or something.

I've bitten the inside of my cheek HARD about twelve times today and I'm not happy about it. It hurts.

To do (in no particular order):

Find a place to live in Irvine
Find a temporary place to live in Sioux Center
Rent a truck with which to move our belongings from NYC to Sioux Center
Move out of NYC
Find temporary employment in Sioux Center
Buy a cheapola car, probably in Iowa
Buy a bike, probably in Iowa
Eat food
Stop biting cheek

Oh, you should see it!

So we visited UCI and some other parts of Orange County and LA and drove up to Monterey and took the Pacific Coast Highway back down and had a great time.

UCI is going to be grand. The students and faculty are wonderful. I met pretty much all 24 of the current MFA acting students (16 of which I will be studying with next year) and sat in on a few classes. I can hardly believe how friendly and supportive of each other everyone is. Usually acting programs are havens for egos and silly unhealthy competition. But during my couple days there I observed real collaboration and best of all, excitement and...something like cheerfulness. It was so great to experience. I know I'm going to learn a ton and develop some great friends and gain some real instinct as an artist there. Can't wait.

Not to say I won't miss NYC. I will. A lot. I'm just trying to concentrate on the positives of moving. We're moving to the O.C. But first we're moving back to Iowa... And we get to figure all that out. Whee!

I also got my job at Deutsche Bank back! That's good news.

So now that it's been decided that we're moving to California, I am suddenly finding New York to be the most wonderful place in the world. That's not to say I don't want to move to California...I'm still very enthusiastic about that. But I'm looking at things around here differently now. I started looking up again (a sure way do discern visitors from New Yorkers -- New Yorkers never look up while walking down the street). I'm noticing architecture and people on the street and clothes and dogs and all the theatre, film, concerts, and art events we can go experience. It's a great city.

Here is a list of the places I've lived (i.e. been for more than a month at a time) in chronological order:

Sheldon, IA
Sioux Center, IA
Nashville, TN
Evanston, IL
Orange City, IA
New York, NY

That's really not that many. I guess I can add Irvine, CA to that list now. We're going to visit next week!

The cold doesn't seem to be going away very quickly. Last night it was not my nose that bothered me that much, but my EARS. I couldn't hear a thing. A took the elevator down at the end of the work day and my ears popped, or unpopped, or whatever they do, and my hearing was impaired for the rest of the night. A hateful experience. I just want to be better before this Saturday, when the big conference starts. I'll be working a DB conference this weekend (actually, from Friday night until Tuesday night) at the Pierre Hotel and the Four Seasons here in NY. I even get to stay at the Four Seasons. Hopefully, with all the overtime hours, I'll be making mad cash. That would be nice...mad cash would be nice. Speaking of a litle extra money, we also got our income tax refund already. Amanda's ON the BALL.

Have a dasty cold. Cad hardly breathe through by dose at all. It's dot much fud.

Sunday we went up to the north Bronx to Woodlawn Cemetery. Amanda's doing a project on one of the sculptures there. I can't believe I've never heard of this place before. It's like the Pere le Chaise (or whatever the big famous cemetery is in Paris) of New York! Amazingly huge mausoleums and memorials, all manner of obelisks, and lots of famous people buried there. It was absolutely beautiful weather, too, so that made the stroll that much more enjoyable. We only got to stay there for less than an hour because the gates closed at 4:45, but I think we'll be going back on of these weeks for a walking tour...

I am currently doing everything in my power to fight off a cold. I just drank 2000% of my daily recommended intake of vitamin C (I know it doesn't help, you just pee it out, we all learned that in high school, but it makes me feel like I'm getting better). I learned that I am probably getting a cold when I woke up at 5:00 this morning and felt that I had a sore throat. That's not the interesting part. The interesting part is that I was woken up (so was Amanda) by a mouse. Squeak, squeak, went the mouse. Not loud, but apparently loud enough to wake us both up. Squeak, squeak. So then there was the whole big thing of getting up and figuring out if it was in the little radiator box where we've seen/heard it before (though we haven't seen it since it got really cold...but now that it's warming up again...) and it poses no danger to us or if it was running around the apartment and was going to...what? Jump on us? Attack us? Even if it was in the apartment, who cares? It's just a mouse. What's it gonna do? Granted, I wouldn't really want a lemming living in the apartment with us, but c'mon...

This, coming from a guy who hates grasshoppers. I've never really been scared of or grossed out by rodents, though.

I just said, "Shut up, Mickey!" a few times, despite Amanda's suggestion that I not give it a name. It quieted down and we slept for another half hour before I had to get up.

Yikes. What a weekend. Let me break down major events since last Thursday.

Thu -- Went to a gallery in Soho where our friends David and Nikki were participating in a visual art/music synthesis project (don't know what else to call it) which David curated (I think). There's too much to tell you about, but it was wonderful wonderful.

Fri -- Went to Soho again to see the Wooster Group. The Wooster Group has long been one of my favorite theatre companies, based only on what I've read about them. Like Richard Foreman, Robert Wilson, Mabou Mines, and a few other artists/groups, I had long admired The Wooster Group without having actually experienced a single performance of theirs. This show is called "Poor Theater" and takes as its subject the theatre of Jerzy Grotowski and the choreography of William Forsythe. I am prone to exaggeration, but I must truthfully say that it was one of the best pieces of theatre I have ever seen. Defnitely one of the most important and inspiring. I now understand that the type of theatre I am interested in can only be created by a company of theatre artists. Not just a director and a few actors that have just met each other. So that is a new (or renewed) goal of mine: to have a company.

Sat -- Saturday I found out that I have DEFINITELY BEEN ACCEPTED TO THE UC IRVINE GRADUATE ACTING PROGRAM!!!!!! This is big. We now know where we'll be next academic year and can start to plan accordingly. It feels so good to have some sense of certainty after so many months of everything being up in the air. And, of course, it's good to know that UCI thought enough of me to invite me to study with them. Eli Simon (head of the acting dept) says that next year's incoming class (8-10 people) is incredibly talented. Can't even explain how excited I am. Also, this will take a ton of the pressure out of our trip to Irvine to see the campus in two weeks. I will no longer have to feel that I'm auditioning yet again.

Sunday later.

Bridget just wrote in her livejournal about all the things that she thinks about when she's laying (lying? laying? That's the one grammatical thing I could never get the hang of...sorry...'of which I could never get the hang'...no prepositions at the ends of sentences, either.) awake at night. I almost never have that problem. I'm usually out as soon as my head hits the pillow and I sleep quite soundly until I hear my alarm. But this morning at 4:30 it was as if a rooster was calling directly into my ear. I was up for the day. Sleeping for another couple hours was hopeless. I must have been dreaming about all the junk I was thinking about because none of them made the same kind of logical sense as things do when you're thinking about them while fully awake. Mostly I thought about UCI and the likelihood that we'll be moving to Irvine sometime this summer, which is hugely exciting, but also scary because how are we going to afford to move our stuff back to Iowa and/or to Irvine? Also, we'll need a car, which is a whole other financial thing. Then I started thinking about gay marriage and 'The Passion of the Christ' and all the issues surrounding these things and that segued naturally into thinking about having reviews ready for this week's issue of catapult. I tried shutting off my brain by visualizing things, like vast plains or the ocean, but that didn't do the trick. So I went and had breakfast at the 24-hour 'Lyric Diner' around the corner.

'the hang of which I could not get.' Is that right?

Again, sorry to leave you hanging...

The cable was fixed and someone was, indeed, trying to steal it from us according to the gentleman from Time Warner cable. Here in New York they'll steal the cable right out from under your nose.

Today is our friend Steve's birthday and he's invited us and some other people to a "Super Karaoke Extravaganzer". I'm sure it will be terribly fun. Trouble for me is it's Wednedsday night and karaoke doesn't start until 11:00 pm and I have to be at work by 8:30 tomorrow morning. I'm such a baby. Baby's gotta go to bed on time. I'll probably go.

Also, my review of the movie "Stone Reader" is up at www.catapultmagazine.com.

Right, so I found the junction box on the East ledge of the roof. It was like Tom had described. There were about sixteen cable connections (places where a cable could be connected, I mean) and six of them had cables connected. However, the ones that did not have a cable connected had weird little things locked onto them that you could attach a cable to but that didn't connect the actual male end of the cable to the female connection. As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that there is no adequate way to explain the appearance or function of these little things. I think they are there just to render the available cable connections unusable. That's all you need to know. Even though I suspected that connection-blocking was the function of the little things, I still had to try to get our cable back. I first connected the cable to one of the little junction box things I told you about, then dropped the cable off the side of the roof down to the ground, then headed down the five flights (six if you count the flight from the top floor to the roof), and connected the cable to the shorter cable that goes into our building. I knew this wouldn't restore our service, but it felt good to do anyway. Then I climbed back up the six (I'm counting the last flight) flights of stairs to the roof.

I was very winded by this time and thought that I had better start going to the gym again soon.

I took a closer look at the junction box. You could see the connected cables running along the ledge of the roof and into the building. They were all neatly bunched together and were attached to the very short ledge by fasteners and all ran to the same place.

Except for one.

One of them ran all willy-nilly to the other side of the roof, not attached to anything. Even more suspicious was that fact that it lacked the small orange Time-Warner tag that each of the other cables, including mine featured. I was sure that this was the cable of the person who was stealing our cable and that the unblocked cable connection it was using RIGHTFULLY BELONGED TO ME. Was it? Did it? And did the cable that was running willy-nilly across the roof not only serve to provide someone with access to my cable service, but also have designs to make me trip and fall off of the roof!!? DID IT!!??

I could not be sure. I called Amanda (in our apartment) on my mobile phone (excellent reception on the roof) and asked her to turn on the television. Just to be sure, I had to see if the connection blocker things were actually what I thought they were. I tried connecting the cable to each of them to see if any worked:

"Does it work now?"

"No."

"Can you see anything now?"

"No."

"Now?"

"Nope."

"How about now?"

"Okay, just assume no until I say something."

None of the blocked connections worked. I looked to the suspected connection. After a brief debate in which Amanda encouraged me to disconnect the suspect cable and connect our own, just to see, and I expressed my fears of unjustly disconnecting someone's cable and the reprisal which would follow, I tried it. I disconnected the suspect cable and connected our own.

"Okay, does it work now?"

"Yes! But we don't have internet."

Blast. Our cable service provided both cable tv and internet access through the same cable. This was, apparently, not our connection. I reconnected the no-longer-quite-as-suspect cable. Defeated, but feeling good about the effort, I took one last look into Jimmy Fallon's apartment (maybe) and headed downstairs.

The cable guy is coming this afternoon. Then we'll have some answers.