A Treat

I made this video in the Spring of 2006 for a Fiction workshop I took at St. Louis Community College - Meramec. I may have mentioned it in passing back then.

Something Big...

...is in the works.

It's got to do with Rock 'n' Roll, Pontiacs, and father-son relationships.

Just know that I have recently watched American Graffiti, and also watched and read High Fidelity so I am on a bit of a Rock kick. Also, I am promising myself to own a nice component stereo system with a turntable by the end of the year so that I can listen to all the records I bought in my teens (I know that makes me sound old, but I really did buy a bunch of used records in my teens because they were cheaper than CDs and my parents have a working record player).

This project is based on the short story "Before Rock Attained Perfection" which in turn was a top-to-bottom rewrite of "North For Salvation" (from which you can read an excerpt here). It will incorporate aspects of both stories, and in fact much of "Before Rock" will be within this work, just not altogether, and a lot of "North for Salvation" may be salvaged and reintroduced as a chapter.

That's right, a chapter. As in, chapter of a novel or novella. I've got a lot of good ideas brewing for this, and it will be nice after having an entire semester devoted to writing for the stage to work on this for the summer. Not that I'm putting my bard-style quill down just yet, I want to polish up Still Life and send it to some festivals and contests (it really is about the most complete thing I've ever written I think), but that shouldn't take me more than a week, but as I said I'm coming off a semester where all of my creative writing went into Still Life and rewrites of Spice.

Speaking of Spice, I promise that within the next week, I will post the video. I have been lazy in that regard while I've been working hard finishing up school and working as much as I can before my vacation in mid-June.

I know, I know, a vacation now? With Kathy still unemployed (yes, Kathy is still unemployed)? Well, we paid for our plane tickets in December, and we're splitting the hotel room with my brother-in-law, and we can't miss it because how often is there a family wedding in Puerto Rico? Only, like, one in ten people get married in Puerto Rico (the percentage is much higher for those who, you know, live there...) so we can't miss it. Plus, it's our first real vacation together since our honeymoon. When we went to New York City two years ago, it was only a vacation for me. And weekend trips don't count as vacations. They're just little road trips.

Anyway, keep checking back here for updates on any and all situations. Again, look here in a week or so for the video of Spice and everybody please have a happy and safe summer.

But before you go, what will you be reading this summer? Something new? An old favorite? Nothing? A classic you've somehow missed all these years? That book you were supposed to have read in your Sophomore year American Lit class but just checked sparknotes and scraped a B- on the paper and vowed to read it eventually? Let me know in the comments!

Guess What?

I graduated.

Boo-ya!

Way Overdue

I apologize. I've been busier than I've ever been. Trying to squeeze as much money out of my job as I can, trying to do all of my homework, trying to spend time with my friends and family. Something had to fall by the wayside. Something had to take not just a backseat, but a spot in the trunk, next to my bottle of windshield washer fluid and the golf clubs that were supposed to be used as props in one of the plays at this year's Surfacing, but which never made it into the theatre for whatever reason. And that something was my blog. And it's unfair to you, my readers, for me to have done that.

I haven't been totally silent, though. I have been twittering quite a bit. If you've come here at all and paid attention to the twitter feed at right (----->), you'd notice how active I've been there. You could put all of those together to form one post.

Sadly, for those who have been watching the blog only for information, I hate to say that you missed Surfacing, only because I never posted about it. That's been my biggest screw up. I really am upset at myself for that. If you're friends with me on Facebook or follow me on twitter, again, you probably heard all about it. Or if you saw me in person any time over the last few weeks. It was basically all I could think of/talk about.

Not that this helps, but there will be videos posted. Again, it's not the same.

This year's Surfacing was incredible, though. I told the cast and director of my show today that this was the best experience I've had in theatre, and I meant that. All the shows I was a part of growing up, in high school, community theatre, last year's Surfacing...all good, some great. But this year was different. I don't know why. I feel closer this year to my cast, even though I spent more time last year. I didn't have to direct this year; maybe that's the difference. I want to thank my director, Mac, for taking my play and trimming the fat from the script. I'm sure you're aware, readers, of how verbose I can sometimes be. I'd like to thank Madeline, the Assistant Director, for doing everything that I would have not thought of if I had been left in control, like organizing props backstage beforehand. I want to thank Max, Christina and Dexter for their portrayals of (respectively) Chris, Janette and Kai. I wrote these parts with certain things in mind, but you each interpreted them in your own way, and brought something new and exciting and awesome to the table.

I have never understood the phrase "Just the writer" in theatre. Until this weekend. I was humbled, but in a good way. Lines that I wrote were getting laughs. Sure, some of them were written to get laughs. Others were delivered in a way I didn't think when I wrote them. I thought, "this line should go here" and put it there. I never thought they would get a laugh. And they did. It was very interesting. I could have sat there with a scorecard and divied up the laughs as they came; that one goes to me for clever writing, that one goes to Mac for clever directing, and this one goes to Dexter for clever delivery. It probably would have come out even.

Anyway, back to my apology. I can't say that you'll be inundated with updates. You know that won't happen. But don't give up on me. I graduate in three weeks. Expect a doozy of an update sometime thereafter. Okay? And please, feel free to drop me a comment any time. Encouraging ones are always appreciated. Snarky ones are likely to be returned at a later date with extra snark attached. Sort of like an interest bearing deposit. Ye be warned.

The Long Awaited (and delayed) Post

Well, my teacher called class a little early, because all he had left on the agenda was to screen a film he wrote that went to sundance called Dopamine, and there wasn't enough time to do so.

I am going to just do a brief little "New Years Resolutions" deal here, not recap the ones I didn't keep from last year. I have more important things to blog about tonight.

So, this year I resolve to graduate. I resolve to get on my bike at least once. I resolve to write as much over Spring Break as I will have been doing all semester (with playwriting and scriptwriting [two totally different classes; playwriting is plays and scriptwriting is actually screenwriting] it should be quite a large amount). I resolve to love more, dislike less, try new things, spend more quality time with my wife and our family (both at home with the cats and the extended groups), cook more often (because I love to cook and haven't done enough of it in the last two and a half years), publish, make contacts, sell myself as a writer. I resolve to be Elliot M. Rauscher, writer.

I want to talk about the writing process, and two pieces I wrote in the last year and a half that I think truly are me, one hundred percent, through and through. These pieces that grew from the mind but evolved from the heart, while growing from the heart and evolving from the mind. What I mean by that is that, well, I have written a great deal from my heart in the past, but my heart has always been on my sleeve whilst doing so. I have also written a great deal from my mind, which has proven ill-fated and hard to read later when I can't figure out where my sentences were going and why they took so long to get to nowhere (kinda like this sentence which I have extended even longer with the parenthetical). What I learned while writing these two pieces is that you shouldn't write from just the heart or just the mind, but both. Let the heart kick the mind up, let the mind ground the heart in reality.

These pieces-and I have excerpts of both of them on here and I'll link to them at the bottom of this post-are similar in subject matter, but approach them differently. It's sad to say that they both deal with death, which is odd, because I have the good fortune of not having dealt with much death in my life. Three of my four grandparents are dead, one of them before I was even born. It was difficult when Granny Rauscher died suddenly, but it was even more difficult six years later to watch Grandpa Rauscher die slowly. I've had three pets that I held very dear to my heart die in the last eight years; one unexpectedly, one slowly and in great comfort (I like to think that the morning she died, the last thing she did when my father picked her up was purr), and one in the cold, clinical fashion most of our pets leave the world. But this is all normal; pets do not live forever; they get old or their adventurous attitude catches up with them. Grandparents die. Parents die, too, and so do children, and brothers and sisters and friends and enemies. People die. This is nothing new. What could I possibly have to say of any value, of any profound consequence, on the subject of death? It's a theme writers and philosophers have dealt with for centuries.

But I tackled it, as I said, from the heart and from the mind. My first drafts were, however, not done correctly. The first of these two pieces, a play, I began writing upon hearing of the death of a friend I hadn't seen in four years. It was too much to tackle at that point, and it poured out of my heart and came out on the page splotchy, bloody, raw, but not emotionally raw; melodramatically raw. Not the good kind of raw. It started with the protagonist (loosely based on your heroic writer) receiving a hand-addressed letter (how romantic, no?) informing him of his friend's death. Only, the audience does not know the nature of the news. It sent the character into a spiral of self-pity and then, lo and behold the (as-of-yet unrevealed to the audience) dead friend arrives. Clearly, it is all in the protagonist's head.

So I put it down for four months and worked on another play, Spice (and more on that in a moment). I thought a lot about what my friendship with this person had been, had meant. I read up a lot on what projects he was working on before he died, as he had been a terrific actor. Lots of people had a lot to say about him online in tribute groups on facebook. And in a way, reading all of that and thinking hard about him made me remember more of our friendship, insignificant as it truly was. And it got me to thinking about how lives cross paths at all kinds of angles, acute and obtuse and right and sometimes they run parallel and bend together for a short while. About how no life is really a straight line, lived from start to finish. It bends, it circles, it splits in two at times. And I wrote The Last Thing.

The second piece is sort of the opposite; I had this idea for writing about a band, traveling to their last gig because they've had it with life as an unsuccessful local band. It was partially inspired by the second ever free-write Friday about Joe Dubinsky. But I had all this stuff in my head about music, and about a band, and it all came out on the page. Actually, nothing about death in the traditional sense, merely the death of a certain musical act, which can seem like a death (believe me).

But as I said, I wrote this one from the mind, not releasing my passion for music, just some technical jargon. Which is not to say it didn't have any heart in it; the friendships were written with heart, because I had learned that with The Last Thing. But in a sixteen page story, three pages with heart do not equal anything good. This story was called "North for Salvation" and, while parts of it were good, it fizzled for me with every read.

So I got to thinking about death again as I was redrafting, thinking about it because I felt mortality creeping up on everybody I know; not morbidly, not immediately, but I feel the steady drumbeat of time, and it dawned on me that each second passed is a second less to live than a second ago. Now, this could cause some heavy breathing and angst amongst some people, so instead of dwelling on this, I just let it happen to one of my characters. Not the angst, but the final passing second. My main character's father passed away. It got me to thinking of what I would do if I were that person; how does one cope with that? It's not the same as a cat. It can be the same as a grandparent, but for me it would be more immediate. There's a generational buffer between us and our grandparents. There is no such buffer between ourselves and our own parents.

Suddenly, I found the heart of the story. Not to keep saying heart, but I found it when I started writing from the heart. The result is something more profound than four guys riding in a van trying to live out their last rock 'n' roll glory. The result is called "Before Rock Attained Perfection."

Anyway, these are the two pieces I am currently going to push forth as the heavy artillery in my arsenal. The Last Thing is very nearly polished to perfection; "Rock" still needs work but it is getting there. These are the works that are going to go out to contests, magazines, etc.

You can find the excerpt from The Last Thing here. Currently, no excerpt of "Before Rock Attained Perfection" can be found on this blog. However, you can find an excerpt from the original draft of "North for Salvation" here.

And now, to other business. Remember the debacle that was Surfacing Emerging Playwrights Festival 2008? Well, it's back, but this time in better hands. In fact, it's in the hands of the same person who rescued it from oblivion last year. And this year, rather than being commissioned to write a piece and guaranteed a spot regardless of the crap I turn out, I opted to submit work and hope for the best. I actually submitted three pieces: the aforementioned The Last Thing, a dramedy set in a restaurant called The Office Bar and Grill, and a romantic comedy entitled Spice (no excerpt posted [and none forthcoming, read on]). I had hope for The Last Thing, knew that The Office Bar and Grill was a long shot, and I submitted Spice because I knew it would play well onstage and fit in very well because there are moments of absurd comedy played against the reality of a young couple falling for each other over Thai food. I was originally going to suicide submit just The Last Thing, but Surfacing is known for selecting plays with parts for both men and women, hence the other two.

Anyway, I received confirmation last week that Spice has been selected this year! And the best part is that I won't have to direct it! Which is a big relief, because that was very time consuming and stressful. I had offered to direct a play if none of my written work was selected, and you can bet your last dollar I was doing my best to will fate to select a play so I wouldn't have to direct. I would have taken the director's chair for a play, if needed; you can't renege on a promise once you've made it, unless of course it's a promise to be more of a consistent blogger...

Well, there you have it. My long silence is broken.

I would like to take a second to ask for a moment of blog silence, to mourn the dismantlement and removal of Gerald's blog turbochubs. He assures us he will come back some day, showcasing his amazing skills of an artist. Yes, I said skills of an artist. Ten points to anyone who can recognize that reference.

And Now, More Things I Learned This Semester

I don't know if I've wrapped every semester like this, and I'm too lazy to check back. In my mind, I have done this every semester, and I've boiled each class down to a single paragraph containing one thing I took away from each class.

A list of surprising things Elliot learned this semester.

I learned that eight years later, I remembered all the words to John Donne's Holy Sonnet #14 (the first line is "At the round Earth's imagin'd corners" and it was turned into a choral piece that I sang my senior year of high school). Sadly, though this was in our book, it was not one that we had to read, so therefore, served me no purpose when th extra credit question was to copy out an entire sonnet that we had read for this semester.

Collaborating on a screenplay, even just six pages of one and a synopsis, basically means that by the time it's done you've got a product that nobody in your group really wants to lay claim to. And also that if left to it with no clear direction, one group will turn out a screenplay that feels so much like Beckett's Endgame even though none of them have ever so much as seen a play.

I may have already discussed this, but Ernest Hemingway writes the best.sentences.ever. Don'e believe me? Check it out, Shortstack:

"The girl came in with the coffee and buttered toast. Or, rather, it was bread toasted and buttered."

and this is the best exchange of dialogue in a novel, ever:

"You asked me what I knew about Brett Ashley"
"I didn't ask you to insult her."
"Oh, go to hell."
He stood up from the table with his face white, and stood there white and angry behind the plates of hors d'oeurves.
"Sit down," I said. "Don't be a fool."
"You've got to take that back."
"Oh, cut out the prep-school stuff."
"Take it back."
"Sure. Anything. I never heard of Brett Ashley. How's that?"
"No. Not that. About me going to hell."
"Oh, don't go to hell," I said. "Stick around. We're just starting lunch."

I learned that I am almost as much of a beer snob as some people are wine snobs. And also that I still harbor ill will towards a former employer of mine. And also that getting the teacher drunk before giving your own presentation actually pays off.

See the post just below this one to see another amazing thing I learned. But the other thing I learned for this particular class is that the WU Lab Fee pays for ridiculous stuff sometimes. Like T-shirts and bags of chips and a DVD viewing system that works just about as well as you'd expect a rusted out Pinto to work.

I learned that I can, in fact, be a good writer some day. And I think that one's probably the most important thing I learned. After the spring semester, for some reason I was feeling like maybe my skills weren't as keen as I thought. That actually kind of explains the lackluster blogging. But now, I turned out seriously a hell of a piece, I think. And the thing about it is, like with my one-act play I wrote last fall (which I actually shouldn't mention the title of at this point, since I submitted it to a blind competition and you can never be too sure about who is clicking on links and googling my name), the subject matter is important to me in a very personal way. And that's all I'll say about it for now.

Happy Holidays. Maybe over break I'll blog a little more. And then after that...

ONE
MORE
SEMESTER

Best Thing I've Learned This Semester?

Watch The Great Dictator. Now.

Secret Blogging

I am sitting in class and blogging.

Don't worry, it's part of class. Sort of. We're creating web pages and we have to link from our fake notepad html pages to real webpages, so I chose my blog. Pretty self serving, eh?

Video Blog - Semester Reading

In Time for My Sesquecentennial Post...

I give you...

Apartment Ten

Surfacing Wrap-Up (Video to come later)

Alright, so we had a roller coaster ride this year. Two directors (one the AD) and one show out, no venue and a near void of on campus advertising, and we pulled it off.

I have to thank a not small handful of people here, so let me do that:

First, to Jenni, my original director and the original Artistic Director: You laid the foundation for the show, and it could not have been done without all the work you did. I'm sorry you didn't get a chance to see it through, but I'm sure we did you proud. And I don't just mean Apartment Ten, I mean the whole thing.

To Megan, who did her best and beyond to fill Jenni's shoes. Megan, now, when you leave, your shoes will be enourmously hard to fill. You rock and we all love you.

To Kathleen, my awesome friend, pretty much my favorite former co-worker and my favorite schoolmate, and the writer of the best show at Surfacing 2008. Thanks for organizing the cast party at the last minute. You are incredible. Just like Target was never the same after you left, Webster will never be the same without you. You've been a true friend, a confidant and always a shoulder to lean on, and you know that I've always been and will continue to be the same for you. More than just the general you rock and we love you (which is true), you absolutely rock and I love you.

To Michael Ericson, my advisor and the faculty advisor to Surfacing. Sorry for the last minute jolt, but as you became well aware eight days before the curtain went up, communication this year was next to non-existent. Your help was not just invaluable; it was infinitely more important than anything else in those crucial last few days. Thank you.

To Hannah, writer and subsequent director of Confessions of a True Romantic. You did it! This is less of a thanks and more of a congratulations, but thanks to you anyway because without you, Surfacing 2008 wouldn't have been the same. You, Kathleen and I were certainly not the only writers who cared, but I think the three of us got the full experience out of Surfacing that we possibly could have.

To the family and friends who came to see the show. I want to write, and it's because of you that I don't give up. Thank you so much for the support. I appreciate all the kind words about my play, even if I don't believe mine was the best, it was nice to hear it from you.

To Theresa, whom I met at the cast party Saturday Night. We had never met before and probably will never meet again, but that only makes your comment stand out more. For those of you who haven't heard this story, I introduced myself to her, she introduced herself to me, she asked me if I was a writer or director and of which show, and when I told her I wrote and directed Apartment Ten, her eyes got big, she grabbed her boyfriend's arm and said, "That was my favorite one! Dan, didn't I tell you that was my favorite one? That was my favorite one!" Hearing it from family is awesome, but hearing it from a stranger can be life fulfilling.

To my cast. Beth, Tyler, Sheri, and Sam. Each of you reached into your character and brought out something I didn't intend but that should not have been left out. I guess the right cast for the script can do that. Beth, thank you so much for stepping up and being my assistant, I needed you more than I think I let on. Tyler, I wish we had more nights just so I could see what else you could do with your character...taking a bite of the pizza? Ho-ly awesomeness. Sheri...what can I say, except Oh God Yes? And Sam, awkward white boys everywhere are in awe of your awkward white boy dance moves. For serious. You four were the best cast I could have possibly hoped for. Watching the other plays, looking at the people I had considered for your parts, I realized how completely different the show would have been, and I don't think it would have been half as good.

To the rest of the writers, directors and cast members not yet mentioned, you all were awesome. Thank you for not bailing when things looked grim. Four days until curtain and we still didn't have a venue, and you stuck it out. We couldn't even get into the venue until the day of, and nobody lost their cool. And look, we came through it and I made many new friends and so did you. You were all fantastic.

And, finally, last but not least, I want to thank my wife Kathy. Not just for video taping Sunday's performance, not just for showing up with three people outside the Webster University fold, but for everything else. While you had no affiliation whatsoever with Surfacing or Apartment Ten, neither would have been a success without your love and support. Thank you for believing in me, thank you for your honesty, and most of all, thank you for loving me. Sometimes I wonder why you love me, but I read something last week in a play by Neil LaBute: Don't worry about "why" when "what" is right in front of you. Okay. Sounds good to me.

Sorry for those of you looking for a review of Surfacing, I just can't do it. Stay tuned, though, I'll throw a video up here as soon as Google Video Uploader takes care of it. If you want to read a review, I suggest not going to Lanz Christian Banes' um, "story" about Surfacing at The Webster University Journal for a review as it is not in any way shape or form a review. Also, note, that I am listed as a senior and not a junior. Despite this typo, the dean has decided I am not eligible for graduation (even though I cited the saying "If it's in the paper it must be true." He says that only holds if the story accompanied by lots of complimentary colorful graphs and pie charts like USA Today). Lanz himself has a long history of not getting the story right, or of getting only half of it, or of telling an in-depth investigative piece when he should be reviewing a play festival. But enough about how much I dislike this guy. This is about my play.

Well, like I said, stay tuned, I'll post a video of it soon. It will be located at the end of this post, right...um...just a second...wait for it...wait for it...wait for it...keep waiting...hominahominahomina HERE:

(video to follow. not here yet)

Okay, Joke's Over...

If you hadn't already figured it out, that last post was indeed an April Fool's Day Prank. Not the best one, but the better one I had planned fell through due to a lack of the victims being home. Silly parents.

But now, to the bad news; In two weeks, Surfacing has lost the artistic director (and subsequently, the director of my play), the venue, and an entire play due to people pulling out. Damn.

So, our Assitant Director stepped into the Artistic Directing role, and I stepped into the role of director of my play, but who knows how that will turn out. I hate directing. It's a disaster and a half. I also had to play the messenger to the writer of the play that is being taken out of the show...although we've got eight days, she may put something together, and if push comes to shove, the artistic director said we could just do a dramatic reading of it. Hmm.

As far as the venue, well, we've got some possibilities. One of them would mean cutting the Friday performance from the run, and doing only matinee showings on Saturday and Sunday. That's Stage 3. I made the suggestion of using WGHS's little theater, and now I am making it my mission to get in touch with somebody at the high school who can help me out there (any of you WGHS alumns in my audience have any ins...I know Grooms left the year after I graduated, I have no idea who the drama teacher is now). And in doing so, plus being there during the discussion of the ousted play, and having a lot of input, it looks like maybe now I am second in command. Which, really, I don't have time for.

So...to recap: Surfacing will be next weekend. Maybe Friday-Sunday, but also maybe just Saturday and Sunday. It will be at...um...TBA? And no, not TBA the band that I formed for one show only my sophomore year of high school, and also not TBA, the Bluth Family's fundraising benefit.

I would list Surfacing 2008 as a qualified disaster. But we'll see. As far as my play goes, I just need to take the reins a little more and direct them. I like what I see, but I don't love it. I need to trust them to listen to me when I tell them what I want. They can't read my mind, they can only read my script. I've got to do the rest now.

Hmm. Well, further bulletins as events warrant. Good night and good luck.

An Update

Well, folks, it has been a while. So sorry.

My cast got changed on me. For my play. Not cool. See, when I had the guys read, I was pretty ho-hum on some of them, three stood out as quality leads, but one and only one stood out as the secondary male character; John Richter. And so we cast him as the secondary male lead.

My director, though, has been not returning my phone calls/facebook messages/e-mails/smoke signals/frantic pleas of help, so I had no idea how my play was going until last Thursday when she (finally) made it to our Thursday night class, and told me "Things are going well, but I need you to rewrite the ending. Beth is not eating spaghetti off of Ben's head."

Total bullshit, that's what I wrote in my play, but I see her point...ultimately, the spaghetti would spill onto the stage, and somebody would have to then clean it up before the next play went on, which could take a while. It is, after all, spaghetti.

So last night, I ran into Beth (the secondary female lead) and asked her how it was going. She also said it was going well, and that the cast was really great, that Ben's characterization of the lead is awesome, that Sherry's moments shine, etc, so I was enheartened. Then, I saw John Richter and asked him how he thought it was going. And he had no idea what I was talking about. No clue. Hmm...

He had been cast in two plays, as a very minor character in one and a relatively minor character but with a major prescence in mine. And he's only doing the other play. My director hadn't even approached him! What the crap?

So, today, I ran into Beth again, and she said that the guy (I already forgot his name) who is playing the second male lead is...okay, but that Richter would have been perfect. I agree. He would have been.

Ugh.

But school, other than that, is going...um...crappy. Listen, all you hangers-on and faithful fews, I gotta tell you; title abstracting ain't glamorous, but it pays the bills a lot better than any dewey-eyed fantasies I may have about writing idiotic stories for the rest of my life. I'm definitely going through a quarter-life crisis, but I'm definitely coming out the other end of it realizing that I've made some good choices and some bad, and amongst those bad choices are the return to school. Well, no, but to return to school and invest so much time and effort (not to mention the cash) into a degree that will let me do what? Nothing! Continue my job title abstracting, apply to grad schools and rekindle that dying hope for another two measley years at great financial cost? And at the end? Another degree, another sixty-thousand dollars in debt, and a stack of Works by Elliot Rauscher that aren't fit to wipe snot with. Because let's face it, I am not a writer.

Alright. I'm done. My point is that after this semester, I'm dropping out of school forever. There's nothing there for me anymore. And there's no reason to stay on. I've had my fun...I got a story published at one school and I'm getting a play produced at this one, so I figured I should go out when there's nowhere to go but up. I couldn't stand falling back down after that. So no more school. No more Webster University, no more sitting in a class filled with people who every year look younger and younger (think of it...next year's freshman were born in 1990/91. I've wrecked cars older than that!), no more silly stories, no more plays. No more Tuesday Excerpts or Free Write Fridays. None of that. After this semester, I graciously hang up my quill and focus on just breathing and living life. Setting attainable goals.

So this shall be my last blog post. Fare well, readers. I will leave the blog up for a few days, to give the stragglers a chance to read these, my last words to the masses. Goodbye. And remember; in years hence, when people ask you about me, your response should be, "Elliot? Elliot is not a writer."

You Think You Know Webster University?

Inspired by my buddy Chris' latest blog about the best of the U of M, I thought it would be a fun exercise to do a similar assessment of Webster University because I know Sports Illustrated ain't gonna do it. So, with all the best-ofs they have on their list (and subsequently, Chris has on his), I will do the exact same list about my school.

Best Sports Arena

Grant Gymnasium. Actually, it's the closest thing we have to a stadium. Imagine the gym at your local YMCA. Now imagine it with twice as many seats. Actually, I think Roberts Gym at my old high school is bigger, and it's right across the street. The high school already uses our pool, and we're already using their classrooms, so why don't we just use their gym? I'm sure there's room for us amongst their championship banner they just got to hang.

Best Pizza Shop

Imo's Pizza. While Racanellis is fine pizza, when in Rome, do as the Romans do, and not as the New Yorkers do. But New Yorkers will tell you that Racanellis is not real NY style pizza. But Imos is real St. Louis style pizza. It is thin. It is greasy. It is cut in squares. It's covered with Provel cheese (not mozzerella or provelone). Now, if only Fortell's would open a location in Webster, we'd be set.

Best Outdoor Studying Area

Well, gee, I guess that depends. If you're a philosophy or English student, the best spot is either in the ivy garden outside Pearson House, or the grotto-like area behind Priest House. If you're in Music or the Conservatory, you probably like Loretto Commons, that area outside the Loretto Hilton center that always gets covered with tents and tables when the Opera Theatre opens up in May. And if you're any other student, you don't like to study outside, you study in the Jazzman cafe and drink expensive coffee, and then when you're done you go out to the Library Quad and play touch football or, if you're lazy enough and nobody's already there with a pigskin looking to put together a pickup game, you can throw the frisbee around.

Best Bar

I guess really there are no bars on campus, but there's a couple nearby. Most of them are the hoity-toity Webster Groves bars for the people who live in the WG, not for the people who go to school there. There's the RoadHouse, but that used to be Ellie Frizelli's and before that JP Fields and before that Streetside Records, so confirming that place as the best bar would be silly because it'll be gone in three years. I'd say the best bar near campus is Cousin Hugo's. Great, cheap burgers and fairly inexpensive drinks. If you go there for lunch on a nice enough day, you can get some of their BBQ which always smells tantalizingly good on my way by it if I happen to be headed that way in the middle of the day.

Best Spot for Weekend Breakfast

Einstein's Bagels. They do breakfast okay, but I hate their lunch. But their breakfast is pretty good. Or, failing that, use your meal plan at Marletto's. If you dare.

Best Laid-Back Student Hang Out

Well...there's really only the one student center, and it's being encroached upon by the small but noticeably growing Jockocracy that infests that side of campus. But I guess that'd be the place, the Student Center. They have a Blimpie and a place to get smoothies, and a giant television, and computer terminals and comfy couches. Sure. Why not.

Best Student Section

Um...let me see...student section? I guess by Chris' blog that's defined as the section at a sporting venue where the students sit. Hmm...um...Webster students go to games?

Best Pre-Game Spot

Okay...I know this list was made by Sports Illustrated, but come on! Pregame spot? We don't even have a game spot!

Biggest Reason For Excitement on Campus

Surfacing. Definitely Surfacing. Also, the Roots are coming for Springfest. Last year we had, like, Edwyn McCain or someone like that.

Best Week To Visit Campus

The week that Surfacing is happening. Or, failing that, Springfest. Nothing like the drunken debauchery that is the U of M's Spring Jam, we have a mild buzz all week from the imported beer we drink and a contact high from the smoke drifting out of the art building, and we groove to some music and forget to do our homework on Wednesday night, but other than that, it's pretty calm. Unless you're a member of the Jockocracy. Nobody can explain it, but they get super excited about Springfest and drink lots of Bud Light, and then run around the campus yelling, "Damn!" It's a little weird.

Best Off-Campus Hangouts

The aforementioned Hugos, and also Coffee Cartel in the Central West End is kind of the meeting place for all the cool kids from Webster U, Washington U and St. Louis U to gather and make fun of all the Lindenwood U, Fontbonne U and UMSL kids who are afraid they'll get mugged and run into the Starbucks across the street. The Loop is always worth a stop, and Maplewood is a happening place with new clubs and stuff. Washington Avenue is nice, if you're in that financial league. But if you're a freshman and you don't know much about St. Louis, just stick to walking to Old Orchard and going to McDonalds. Trust me. Woo yeah.

The Unfinished (and also unstarted) Play

I was super excited when I started school at Webster in the fall of 2006: It was the right size, I liked the people, it was close, it was quaint. It was fun. The classes were awesome. And I found out there was a one-act play festival called Surfacing. So I wrote a play and submitted it, and it was not picked.

But, I was friends with one of the readers/directors and the assistant artistic director as well, and they both said they liked my play, but that it was passed over for casting reasons (and apparently, one of the other directors was so upset it wasn't picked, he almost quit). But I didn't actually know the extent of all of that until last night.

But before I get there, let me just explain about this year. I took two semesters' worth of playwriting classes so I would have a nice selection of work to submit to Surfacing for this year. And when it came down to it, the only one I wanted to submit was too long. So I set about to write a new play, only I started too late and my idea was too grandiose and I missed the deadline.

Well, life goes on, right? I have another year to craft a play.

Only Thursday, which was already shaping up to be kind of a lousy day for various reasons, I got an e-mail from the Artistic Director (last year's assistand AD), and she asked me to write a play for her to direct for Surfacing.

!!

So, I met with her last night after work at Jimmy Johns in Maplehood, and we discussed what she wants. And what she wants is a new play by Elliot M. Rauscher. Sweet!

Only, I have a week and a half to get enough of a rough draft to cast from. So, okay, I've got a deadline.

But this is exciting! I actually got commissioned to write a play. Somebody likes my work so much that they will, sight unseen, agree to produce one of my plays. Guys, get this...Elliot IS a Writer! Yeah!

If it comes down to being a writer or running for president, I guess I'll be a writer. But I think I can handle both. I mean, actually, being a writer is a good thing in a president; don't we all want a literate president? I know I do.

Anyway, I just thought I would give you all the good news. I'll post more about when the festival is so you can come see my play. It'll be in April some time. It's exciting! Oh, and don't expect to see any excerpts from it on here...it will be all fresh and new for you in April. And if you can't make it, well, that's your own fault. For reals.

Music to blog by: Rufus Wainwright - The Art Teacher

Yeah, I Know...

But I've been very busy. Very busy. But there's a few things I'd like to talk about.

I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but last fall we bought a ginormous television. Fifty inches. Plasma. Yes, HD. Of course, with it, we had to get more on top of things. Like our DVD player, for instance. Initiating technical babble. I had a standard DVD player with component video and composite audio running into the television. I was getting the best picture I could with what I had. But I wanted more. So, the other night, we bought a new DVD player. It's not an HD or BluRay, ut it's an upconverter. So it scales standard definition DVDs to near Hi-Def. And we got a good deal, too. It's a Sony. It's a 5 disc. But it didn't come with a remote or a manual because it was the floor model. But whatever, our TV remote works for it just fine. And of course, to get the best picture possible, I went with the HDMI cable. Yes. I am a nerd. I have already watched The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in all its glory, plus the first twenty minutes or so of Revenge of the Sith. Very cool.

Pandora Internet Radio. Best thing ever. Click Here.

School is going um...okay. The thing is, that with school, mostly I like history classes outside of my major and minor, and I like the practical classes inside my major and minor. I'm not so much into the theory classes in my minor. But right now, the only class I like is my Media Literacy class. I mean, I like the people in my history class and my creative writing class, but the history class is like pulling teeth at times, and I think the professor in my creative writing class is a little...um...I don't know how to write it out. Imagine me making a noise and hand movement indicating that he may have recently lost his mind a bit.

And I found something about my job I'm NOT fond of. Jefferson County. Mostly, the searches I have been doing down there, which leave me tired and groggy and (no joke), in a small amount of pain because I barely get to sit down as I sift through 86 years' worth of musty deed indexes and microfilm. Musty deed indexes with some gaping holes in the records. Boo hiss.

Anyway...I should go to bed. Class in the morning. Work in the day. Class in the evening. Homework at night. Maybe sleep. Eventually. Maybe.

So last Wednesday, I had a surreal night. Remember Hugo's? Of course not. Jesse's older brother Matt used to work there (Jesse was my best friend in my pre-middle school days), and we used to go get free food. I went in there Wednesday night after class with some people from class. We talked, had some drinks, some of them smoked (and I got all stinky), and it was nice. We talked about things like music, literature and politics and professors (including the one that walked in around 9:15, and sat at the bar until after we had all left), and after-graduation plans (a diverse group, from sophomores up to second year seniors up to 25 year old juniors), and as I was talking with a friend with whom I have had a couple classes already, she up and said I sounded unhappy.

How's somebody gonna come right out and say that? I mean, even if it might be true, why would you bring it up? I mean, I wasn't going to say "And it's clear you want to jump Mark six ways from Sunday but you're too scared to say anything." No. Ridiculous.

Anyway...I was there, in this restaurant, scene of some of my youthful exploits (they used to have a cigarette machine...), and being told I'm unhappy by a person with whom I had been having a tremendous time with. Well, not that I was having a good time with just her, but the whole group. Anyway...not important I guess.

Really...I should go to bed. Now.

Post 130

Well, the e-mail came out with the 2007 Three Day Novel Winners.

I am happy with what I submitted.

I did no win.

Nor did I even make it onto the short list.

Or the honorable mentions.

But I am happy with it anyway. The last time I went through this, I was more upset with the verdict. And then I read my submission and was mortified that I had let anybody else read it.

I guess I can't say I'm happy that I didn't win, because I'm not. But I have to remember that I didn't read any of the other submissions. Nor should I, at least not with an eye for judgement. It's hard to stay impartial, really. Only, no, I can tell when a work of fiction is a better one than I turned out.

Oh well. This just means that I can actually discuss it a little more freely now. So look forward to some of that.

Well, school is starting up for me tomorrow. Well, it started today, but I don't have any Monday classes until after spring break, so it officially starts for me tomorrow morning at 8:30. Media Literacy, here I come!

Well, folks, that about wraps it up for now. I'ma go crawl into bed.

Photographie

My Photo I teacher is French. He's kind of funny, too. The first night of class, we talked about cycling during the break. He asked what we thought of a picture, and one girl said it made her think of landscape calenders. So now, anytime he sees an image that he thinks should go in a calender, he looks at Megan for her opinion, calling her the "expert on calenders." He also knew right away which photos were mine, or so he thought...we pinned our photos up on a board and he walked around, and when he got to one group that included a picture of downtown St. Louis with a bike race going on, he looked at me and said, "No need to ask who took these pictures." Okay, so he was right, but still...

I used to take pictures of nothing but cats. I got my first camera when I was probably ten or eleven, and seriously...all cats. I got some great pictures of cats...but really, I took about thirty rolls of film and they were all of cats.

Not that I have gotten much better. I bought a nice $80 point and shoot film camera right at the start of the Digital Camera revolution, ran a roll of film through it to get used to it, and took it with me to college. That first roll? All cats. And did I take a lot of pictures at school? The whole time I was there, maybe three rolls. And no cats.

When I got a digital, guess what? My stupid cat bore the brunt of the flashes.

But now...having become incredibly unsatisfied with the lack of control I have over images I get with a digital camera (the point and shoot kind), I find myself loving SLR film cameras more and more. Okay, I love Kathy's Digital Rebel as well, but that's her camera and not mine. And so I keep taking steps back to a more involved process...which is why I love the darkroom. And so far? No pictures of cats.

My four pictures that I turned in, well...my instructor said they were unconventional. For instance, one has a horizon line running across the middle of the image, rather than set at one third or two thirds, as is the standard practice. My picture of the bike race is loaded with action and focus in the bottom right corner, and devoid of anything in the top left. My picture of downtown Clayton? The foreground is dark, leading the eye to an empty street caught in the sunlight. The only conventional one, he said, is too dark to really be a good print, and there's not enough contrast.

Back to the first one, though, with the weird horizon line. It works, he said. For two reasons; it's not the actual horizon, it's where the trees start after a clearing. And also, while the picture is not divided into thrids horizontally, it is vertically. I think you'll have to see it to see what I mean.

And the shot of downtown Clayton? It works as well, he says, because the street is emtpy. There's all this darkness in the foreground, there's no people (aside from one in black, walking out of the sunlight, his back to the camera), and it's just that...emtpy. Which is what I was going for. I like downtown Clayton but there's a sense of banality about it, this sort of clinical mock-up of an urban scene that is missing something. And at that point, what it was missing was people. In fact, there were lots of people behind me, waiting for me to take the picture. I wouldn't have minded at the time if they had just went ahead and walked through the shot, but now, having seen the print...I like it the way it is.

And the downtown one? I can fix it. I just need to burn in the sky in that empty corner. That will help balance it a little bit. Or, I can just make a 5X7 of the area in which there is something actually happening, but then it's not a city scape like it's supposed to be, but a street scene. And the last one? Well, I just need to increase the contrast and decrease the amount of time I expose the paper, I guess. See if that helps. But the assignment is over, and we're on to motion photography. And my question to you, dear readers (all eight of you now, since Annie's started reading), can any of you do backflips? Anyone? Or know somebody in the St. Louis Metro Area that can, that would be willing to do a backflip or two (or, possibly, four) that I can take a picture of? That would be sweet. Let me know.

Work work work, work work work work, work work work work work. Oh, and school.

I have not fallen off the face of the Earth. I am just busy. All day with work and school, except for Friday when it's just work, and then the weekends when it's homework for school and spending time with Kathy, friends, family, softball, bike races (but it's the off season now), more homework, and other such stuff.

I warned you at the end of the summer, that my blogging would become scarce as the school year stepped up. And after fall break, I'll be doing CSO Tuesday nights (come to our concerts, I will post about them).

All that having been said, I need to write more for myself, while not letting up on the writing for school. I wrote some great stuff for school, but I don't want to post it yet, or some of it, at all.

I do need to go and pick up some more copies of Currents at Meramec. There have been some people asking for copies, and I find that I have either handed all of mine out or (as is the case with one copy I found recently) spilled coffee (tea? Coke?) on them.

I want more people to check out my blog, too, but I don't have much product to talk up at the moment.

Alright, I will make a concerted effort to blog more consistently. I can't promise a return to the bloggin' golden age of three months ago, but I can promise more than one update every week and a half.

I received word from the Three Day Novel Contest that they have my manuscript. Four months or so until they announce the winners. And while I know I produced a manuscript that was twice as long and at least ten times the quality of my 2004 offering, I wish they'd give me feedback very soon as opposed to never. I don't know. Anybody want to read it? Let me know, I'll, I don't know...pdf it somehow and e-mail it? I can't post it, that violates contest rules. Let me know if you want to read it, I'll try and get it to you. Should be easy for most people. No, I will not print it out and mail it to you, though. It's 101 pages. I already mailed it to Canada once, the last thing I need is to mail it to, oh, I don't know...just out of the blue, New Zealand or some place. Sorry to any of my readers in that part of the world.

Current score at school:

Webster University Eleventy Billion, Elliot 915.2 x 10^-i

Just a little math humor that I don't get but that should give one or two readers a chuckle. Oh wait, I don't think any of my calculus-joking friends read my blog. Hm.

Oh well.

Added a new poll to replace my appallingly stone-aged poll I paid little to no attention to.

Kinda Late, I Know...

It is two thirty in the morning on this fine Tuesday, August 28th, 2007, and I have just finished my homework for the day. I still have four chapters of my photography book to read, plus whatever Erickson gives me to do before Thursday, and then I am done doing homework for this week and can start looking at the increasingly large mound of homework for next week (Webster 99, Elliot 7), but with the holiday next Monday my media reasearch Literature Review is not due for two weeks (Webster 99, Elliot 8, with a further ninety points awarded upon early completion of said Literature Review, wherein "early" is defined as being more than 48 hours prior to deadline).

I once again have a camera collection. I had lightened the load a bit, with the sale of the old Canon, and throwing out the busted Kodak digital, and for a little bit all we had in the house was the Canon digital, the Nikon N55, the busted Yashica TL Electro, and Kathy's point and shoot Olympus. Then I had to go and buy a Fuji digital, and before my Target discount ran out we bought Kathy a Digital Rebel, and with my photography class I am encourage, for the instructor's peace of mind, to not use my N55 but to find a camera that is fully manual, and with my TL Electro out of commission, I find myself beset with both my father's Yashica TL Electro (so there's a familiarity about it I like, plus a 180 mm lens to boot) and my sister's Nikon FE2. Add that to the video camera, and we once again have almost enough cameras for Kathy and all her siblings.

Now, even with this plethora of cameras, there is still uncertainty. It is possible that my father's TL Electro will not advance film, as his Yashica FR has stopped doing so (otherwise, I would have borrowed that one instead of the TL Electro). It is not advisable to use my Yashica, which will definitely advance the film, because the light seals do not do their job, so the film gets all ruined, even if it will advance. My sister's Nikon, also, might still have mirrors misaligned, as that was an issue a few years ago and nobody can remember if it has been corrected. My N55 is, as stated above, out of the question because it is all new-fangled and automatic. And if the N55 is out, at least it still takes film, which is more than can be said for the Digital Rebel. Nor can I use the Olympus because it's not an SLR. Bottom line is, Wednesday night I am going to be heading to class with a camera still to be determined to start taking pictures that I am not sure will come out. I guess I could run a couple rolls of film through the cameras, but that costs money and so forth. And it takes time. A whole lot of precious time. It's going to take patience and time. To do it right, child.

Wow, still no brevity to my posts. But, let's just make this clear (and if you catch the reference, you might win a prize): To me, he is El Duderino.

New features to the blog: a picture, an updated link list (sort of, I just rearranged them and retitled some) and a poll. Please answer by the end of the week. I figure, if I can't actually update as much as I used to, the least I can do is give you all something to do/look at every once in a while.

Three Day Novel coming up this weekend. Get Ready!

"Nobody calls me Lebowski. You got the wrong guy. I'm The Dude, man."