What's everyone up to right now?

[Fireball]

[rapid note taking ceases when disclaimer is published]

[Astreja]

Ballet tonight, but going to head out the door a few minutes early to drop off some leaf bags at a recycling depot. If I get downtown too early, there's a very nice coffee shop right across the street from the dance studio.

When I get home, the plan is to glue up and nail the sides of the cabinet I'm building.

[The Valkyrie]

Patient files.

Far too many patient files!

I have three appointments monday morning, and a scheduled surgery Wednesday and Thursday.

Bloody sick people!

[Joods]

[rapid note taking ceases when disclaimer is published]

You understand why it's needed, don't you?

---

Patient files.

Far too many patient files!

I have three appointments monday morning, and a scheduled surgery Wednesday and Thursday.

Bloody sick people!

If it weren't for sick people, you'd be out of a job. 🙃

*runs*

[The Valkyrie]

[rapid note taking ceases when disclaimer is published]

You understand why it's needed, don't you?

---

Patient files.

Far too many patient files!

I have three appointments monday morning, and a scheduled surgery Wednesday and Thursday.

Bloody sick people!

If it weren't for sick people, you'd be out of a job. 🙃

*runs*

Yeah, but I could retire and become a professional bum.

[Joods]

You understand why it's needed, don't you?

---

If it weren't for sick people, you'd be out of a job. 🙃

*runs*

Yeah, but I could retire and become a professional bum.

Then you'd have every reason to come visit me 😁

[Fireball]

[rapid note taking ceases when disclaimer is published]

You understand why it's needed, don't you?

Yup. Some people. I say a crucifiction is in order...

[Rev. Rye]

Before I show what happened earlier today, I should bring this up: every summer, I go up to Door County and I go to see the plays of the three main troupes. The three troupes: Peninsula Players (a pretty mainstream repertory theatre near Juddville), Door Shakespeare (a Shakespeare troupe based out of Bailey's Harbor, specifically, a garden), and American Folklore Theater/Northern Sky Theater, which is a theatre company based in an amphitheater in Peninsula State Park and claims to be one of the only theatre companies in America outside of Broadway to regularly create their own musicals. One of the most popular ones is a show called Lumberjacks in Love. The basic plot involves four lumberjacks in a Wisconsin lumber camp: Muskrat is despondent upon reaching his 50th birthday, Moonlight is disturbed by his burgeoning love with someone called "The Kid," a girl who's pretending to be a boy (complete with drawn-on facial hair), Minnesota Slim, a misogynist who's been saddled with a mail-order bride, and Dirty Bob, who hasn't washed in 32 years because of trauma involving a missing bar of soap. It's pretty funny, and I've watched it somewhere in the area of seven or eight times. Sometime last year, I found myself thinking that, with its takes on gender (there are two female characters who both pretend to be men, one of the first scenes involves a stag dance, and one of the lumberjacks has a song about wearing a "little dress" [read: a petticoat left behind after the Kid is pretending to be a woman after pretending to be a man for so long]), it could very well be the Northern Wisconsin family-friendly (and by 1996 standards) version of Rocky Horror, except with the horror tropes replaced with lumberjacking, and score that's more folk than rock.

Whether or not they were thinking of that, this time around, they've decided to add a twist to this year's production: 

At each performance you will be invited to sing along and dress up as your favorite Lumberjack character or perhaps a pileated woodpecker. Get your chance to be featured in the pre-show costume contest! New to this classic? No worries. We’ll be handing out lyrics so you can sing along or just take in the fun!

While today's show, there weren't that many people singing along, there were a couple other people who came dressed up. Some of them dressed in red flannel long johns (like in the bath scenes), some people pretended to be The Kid, and a couple other people dressed up in plaid shirts.

Here's what I did:




For the record, this is the first time in years I went out without my trademark fisherman's cap, this time, using a Stormy Kromer red plaid cap. And in case you're wondering about the little black bag under my arm, well, thereby hangs a tale, and it's something a lot of us here may find funny.

In the play, Dirty Bob is so called because of his refusal to wash. This happened because when he was five, his mother died. The preacher used it as an opportunity to say that we on Earth, as opposed to those in Heaven, are so dirty we will never be clean. Bob listened to it and was kind of confused, because his mother used a special blue bar of soap and he was clean as a whistle when the bath was over. But, alas, before she died, she dropped that bar of blue soap and it was never retrieved. As a result, he vowed to never bathe until he found that blue soap. There's even a song about it called "Someday, I will be clean." Fortunately, by the end of they play, it turns out that the mail-order bride has a bar of blue soap, and after he convinces her to give up the bar, he's finally cleaned. And, every year they do it, the concession stand sells a bar of blue soap. I've bought one every year I saw it (I never used them, because it's a memento of the show and one that can't really be replaced). Alas, I was only able to find four of the bars (the fifth was bought this year.) When I came on stage with the bag of soaps, Jeff Herbst (played Minnesota Slim, and a long-term player) was impressed and touched by it.



Yes, two of them have lost their blueness, and three of them are in zip-loc bags because the shrink wrap included with the newer ones is poor quality.

If you plan to be in Door County this summer, specifically Thursdays at 6, please, go see this show. There are clips on Youtube, some of other productions, and others that aren't even of the actual play, but make no mistake, none of them do justice to the show. It simply must be seen properly to be enjoyed.

The closest I've been able to come is this clip from "I Will Be Clean"





In the Northern Sky Production, at any rate, the song is a more uptempo march, one of the lumberjacks is accompanying the song on guitar, and the others do a song-and-dance number with their washtubs. To be fair, even the link in the description admits that this is not terribly representative of the production, and it's strange to see these characters I know so well with radically different looks and vocal styles. Northern Sky has a Youtube channel with clips of some of their shows (nothing of Lumberjacks, alas, except a costume video from two weeks ago). I am not actually affiliated with the company (except for occasional volunteer work), so this isn't some sort of forum advertising.

And now, here's the costume video

[The Valkyrie]

The local radio station that I listen to via my phone had listeners vote for the one hundred greatest albums of all time.

Now they’re playing several songs in a row from each. So far, so good.

But...

... at least three of the albums that have made the countdown, and I’ve heard less than half of those played (they’re at number six right now, Hotel California) are by the Beatles.

Now, I’ve never understood the fuss about this band (or Pink Floyd, for that matter). They have some good songs but they weren’t all that great.

Yes, I understand we all have different tastes, but what is so great about them??

Arguments and insults begin in...

5.

4.

😸

[Fireball]

The local radio station that I listen to via my phone had listeners vote for the one hundred greatest albums of all time.

Now they’re playing several songs in a row from each.  So far, so good.

But...

... at least three of the albums that have made the countdown, and I’ve heard less than half of those played (they’re at number six right now, Hotel California) are by the Beatles.

Now, I’ve never understood the fuss about this band (or Pink Floyd, for that matter).  They have some good songs but they weren’t all that great.

Yes, I understand we all have different tastes, but what is so great about them??

Arguments and insults begin in...

5.

4.

😸

Agreed, mostly. I think that consensus reality is there with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, though. Just cuz you like "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport!" is no reason to diss the Floyd. Some of their early stuff is just plain weird. :Yup: