Memorizing Lines

At this precise moment, I am sitting at work reading lines from the play I was cast in back in December. The play is Tennesse William's famous work, The Glass Menagerie. I play Tom Wingfield, which is the lead part in the show. Anyhow, as is my policy, I procrastinated hard-core. I had all of winter break to potentially be working on lines. I had all of the month of January while we were blocking scenes. But like a dumbass, I only memorized the first three scenes. On Monday, we are running Act I off book. Guess how many scenes I have left to memorize for Act I?

I'll tell you.

Three scenes. Three long, grueling, wordy scenes. Additionally, we are running Act II off book on Tuesday. That's two more lengthy scenes that I haven't even touched yet that need to be ready to go a mere day after we run Act I. This is scary. Luckily, I work at a place where I am required to stay awake all night doing nothing but monitoring my clients sleep. This leaves me with many, many hours to pace around memorizing. It doesn't make the job any easier, though.

In other news, yesterday evening was the SCSU film organization's big film festival. "Cinescope" hosted a roughly 3 hour event called Cinema Silence.

?

It was an okay time. I guess my only complaint was that almost all of the film entries were highly experimental and expressionist pieces of art. A few of them here and there would have been fine, but the entire show ended up being very alternative. I will admit it was a little exhausting to watch. The film I submitted (which was created in the Spring of last year) was the only one that I considered to be classically entertaining. Entitled Don't Vote For Chris, it featured simple, easy comedy. It was definitely a crowd pleaser, especially after the monotony of so many dry, confusing films.

The finale of the evening featured the premiere of Cinescope's newest production, Cinemapocalypse. I was very excited to see this film, as I had auditioned, been cast, and performed in it. It was very funny! All around it was a good night.

Anyways, I have to go memorize lines like a frickin maniac now.

Cody M. Logeland

Hiatus and a Trip to Minneapolis

Hello. Like me, you've probably noticed that I haven't posted for awhile. Why, you ask? I have been ultimately way too busy to be funny. It's very possible. It happens all the time. Even now, as I type I am feeling bitterly unfunny. But there is nothing worse than not trying.

So here goes. :D

I am now going to explain why, in my most recent blogs, I was lamenting my financial situation. Two weeks ago, my girlfriend and I decided that we needed to get out of St. Cloud. We had been intending to go on a mini-vacation sometime for my birthday, so we decided to just do it. Because I had so much extra money from the holidays, I paid for most of the trip. And let me tell you, we spared no expense.

First of all, I booked a room at the Foshay. Oh, you've never been? Haha, just kidding. I'm not an ass. But seriously, have you ever been there? Here's a picture.

Yes, the fabulous Foshay Tower, home of W Minneapolis (a 4 star hotel). Being a history nut, I totally researched the hell out of it before the trip. It was constructed and completed in 1929. Wilbur Foshay, a high rolling businessman had the building built for offices and intended for his office and personal apartment to be stationed near the top of the tower.

Wilbur "Douchebag" Foshay

It was designed to be a memorial to the Washington memorial. Which is a little convoluted in my own opinion. Anyways, when it opened there was a huge party. There were half naked women everywhere. No lie. Wilbur even commissioned John Philip Sousa to compose and perform a march at the event.

Remember? He composed "Stars and Stripes Forever." Kind of a big deal.

So anyways, it was an awesome party. But guess what happened three months later? Know your U.S. history? The stock market crashed. Wilbur Foshay hadn't even moved in to his fabulous new apartment yet. All of his assets were seized and he was exposed as a crook who had been running a pyramid scheme the whole time (which is why I called him a douchebag earlier). The check he wrote John Philip Sousa for $20,000 bounced and Sousa forbade the march to ever be played again until he got his money.

Fun fact: The march was prohibited all the way to 1988, when a group of Minnesotan investors finally paid Sousa's estate the $20,000 he was owed.

Anyways, Foshay lost it all. And now there was just a huge ass (for the time) skyscraper sitting in the middle of Minneapolis. It was beautiful, unique, and full of art-deco goodness. Until the mid-seventies, it was the tallest thing on the horizon in our majestic Twin Cities. Over time, the tower fulfilled a variety of uses. Finally, in 2008, it opened as the hotel it is today.

And what a hotel it is. It is a strange hybrid of old-timey class, and Vegas glitz. Look at some pictures.

The lobby.

The front desk. (The lady who was there was a bitch.)

So there you have it. And then there was the room... It didn't take long for my girlfriend and I to realize that it was essentially a sex room. By extension, I guess it is a sex hotel. It was (as my girlfriend puts it) ricockulous. Huge bed, purple lights, and a frosted glass wall between the bedroom and the shower. So privacy? Not so much. But is that a bad thing? Quite a conundrum.

Giant bed.

The revealing shower.

So that's enough about the hotel. We also went to a show at the Guthrie Theater. My first time going there, much to the dismay of my girlfriend. I was pleasantly surprised by a very entertaining production of Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors."

The Guthrie. Great architecture. 

In the morning, we had an expensive breakfast at the Foshay's in-house restaurant, Manny's Steakhouse. Yes, Manny's, the Star Tribune's 2008 Restaurant of the Year. It was SO expensive and SO worth it.

See that fruit bowl on the left? That is an $8 bowl of fruit.

That night, we had a romantic dinner at Chino Latinos. Another great restaurant in the cities. They advertise their menu featuring "Street Food from the Hot Zones." It was interesting. Everything we ordered was very unique and very delicious. My girlfriend and I joked about doing a fake marriage proposal in the middle of the restaurant. Naturally, I chickened out. :)

So that was my date weekend. It was very plush, very fun, very relaxing, and very expensive. In fact, the wonderful happy feeling stayed with me for a full week before wearing off due to the stress of college life. It was such a great break from the daily grind. However, it also explains why I was so broke for awhile there.

I'm fine now. I've got a nice paycheck in the bank and I am back on the rise. In conclusion, I love the cities, I love being treated like I'm rich, and I love my girlfriend.

More to come,

Cody M. Logeland

Corn in a Can: It's What's for Dinner

Just wanted to let you know.

Corn in a Can.

This is tonight's dinner. Corn from a can. My next blog post will be all about why this was my only option for dinner tonight. By the way, I'm sorry that all my recent posts center on the topic of food. It is just a hot-button issue right now. ;)

Cody M. Logeland

Mac & Cheese. With Attitude.

Uggggghhhhhhhhhhhh...

I work the overnight shift at my job. Most weekends. It's a great job, really. But it is SO hard to stay awake all night. I really have to get creative in order to find things to do. And most of the things I do are done with the appropriate amount of Cody-attitude.

Here I am making mac & cheese with attitude.

Unfortunately, eating is one of the ways I stay awake. No wonder I have so much trouble sticking to a healthy diet.

Here I am eating the mac & cheese. With attitude.

Of course, I don't just sit and eat alone in the dark. Although the above photo would have you believe that. I have to find other distractions as well.

Watching "Monk" with attitude.

"Monk" is a very interesting show. Whenever I watch it, I feel my quirks and compulsions bubble to the surface. I suddenly get the urge to type all the dialogue on my lap. That is one of my things. I do it at the movie theatre all the time. I just can't help it. I also start twitching my hips and counting. It is truly maddening.

Featuring the comedy stylings of Tony Shalhoub.

In case you didn't know, the show is about a detective with severe, acute OCD. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Of course, this leads to some interesting situations. He has a fear of his very occupation.

Now, to redirect this discussion back to the subject of me, I believe that I have mild OCD. This is not a huge deal. Personally, I think everyone has it. Just in varying degrees and with different quirks.

So I am sitting at work right now. Just waiting for the sun to come up and end my misery. Eating mac & cheese, watching monk, and twitching my hips. With my trademark scowl. These 16 hour shifts will be the death of me. On the bright side, I am thoroughly enjoying life! Got a date tonight. :)

Cody M. Logeland

Here We Go Again

Good morning. Today is an important day. Today, Spring semester 2011 starts. Break couldn't last forever and now it's time to get back to work. In a broad sense, this is a GREAT thing. This whole break business was getting a little long. And without structure, my life starts to fall into chaos. Nothing like a semester at a college to give you structure. That being said, I am a little bit worried about this one...

I am enrolled for 19 credits. This is the behavior reminiscent of an over-achiever. The most I've ever taken in the past was 18 credits. It was hell.

Like this, but more academic.

So the course load is heavy. I've got to stay on top of things if I want to succeed and continue my crusade to salvage my suffering GPA (What alliteration!). Read that last sentence again and tell me you don't savor all the S sounds. :D

Anyway, even more frightening is the schedule that all these classes will be present to me. Every day except Friday, I will be having a class at 9am. 9 FREAKING AM!! Ok...So I know what you're thinking. "Big deal! I wake up at 6 am everyday to begrudgingly start the commute to my thankless job." Well here's the thing... I haven't had a reason to wake up before 10am since high school. 

This is what my expression is right now.

Yeah, it was easy back then. I would get up at 6:30 every morning and think nothing of it. But college does something to you... It makes you feel...lazy. And it is incredibly easy to get tired. Furthermore, it conditions you to sleep in! This is all bad! On Monday and Wednesday mornings, I need to not only be up and awake, I need to walk all the way across campus to go to a PHY ED class. PHY ED?! At my age?

Oh well... I guess the bright side of being back in a required gym class is that my movement towards my weight loss goals will be quickened. I've lost a lot of weight since last summer, but I've kind of stopped this last month. I've been eating a lot of junk food again. So this will be a good motivator to keep working at it. And that will at least make my girlfriend happy. Which, by extension, will make me happy. The great chain moves slowly, but with wisdom. Haha.

Cody M. Logeland

S & M

I've done interesting things on stage in my life. I've beaten someone up. I've kissed a woman I hardly knew. I've officiated a wedding ceremony. I've arrested a notorious criminal. I've threatened someone at gunpoint. I've pranced around in a purple suit with a bunch of gay people.

There I am, third from the left. The Producers, 2010.

I've simulated a rape. I've sentenced someone to prison. I've sentenced someone to death. I've whipped myself into a frenzy with a cat of nine tails.

Sweeney Todd, 2010

I've even portrayed Adolf Hitler.

Heil myself.

But last night, I had a new experience. Something I never thought I would do on stage. I put a leather strap around my neck with chains hanging from it. And attached to those chains, there were nipple clamps. I wore a leash, the other end of which was held in the hands of a man wearing a leather harness and cuffs. And in my mouth was a gag. See for yourself.

Kinky.

And all of this for the sake of comedy. Yes, last night was the premiere of a new show that I am a part of called "Inappropriate Vaudeville." We performed at the Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis. Definitely took me out of my comfort zone a little. But I think the important thing to remember here is that I got free beer. Which not only calmed my nerves before I went onstage to get whipped mercilessly. It also tasted good.

Cheers.

I guess I can just be thankful that neither of my grandmas had to be in the audience. Some things in life you just don't want to cross over into other areas of your life. Like your grandmother's opinion of you. I love my grandmas'. 

Cody M. Logeland

Chipotle Blimp

Hello. I am sitting here feeling very fortunate today. It's easy enough to say "hey everyone! My life sucks because I can hardly afford the rent and I get stressed out easily!" But then you have to remember that people are dying in third world countries and children are starving in Africa. That's right, people are dying, but I can go watch a free hockey game less than ten blocks from where I live. So it's hard to complain, really.

On another note, guess what I did today? I went to watch a free hockey game less than ten blocks from where I live. It was my first time watching a hockey event that wasn't at a high school or middle school level. So yeah, it was exciting.

Look. It was exciting.

I was very excited, but also very hungry. So I went out to the lobby area to buy a hot-dog. I put mustard on it.

Artist's rendition. Not actual hot dog.

It was wonderful. No sooner did I return to my seat, that I saw an amazing thing. It was a blimp. But not just any blimp. It was a Chipotle blimp. I immediately wanted Chipotle. Everyone started screaming at the blimp because it was dropping little cards. I could only assume that these little cards would give me access to some Chipotle. I screamed. But the blimp ignored me.

Fuck you, blimp.

As it slowly sailed by, ridiculing me with its big Chipotle sign, I started thinking about how bad the food at Chipotle is for your health. It may have just been my hatred for the blimp, but I started to pity the people who caught the falling cards. "These are the people who will be dying soon," I thought to myself. At this time, my friend handed me a mini donut. This was a wake-up call.

As I chewed the mini-donut, I started to reflect on what I had eaten the past few days... It all came rushing back. Just the day before, I had an entire bag of tortilla chips with salsa for dinner. With coke. Hmmmm. For lunch that day, I ate 7 lefse rolls that were drenched in butter.... Hmmmmmm.... For dinner the night before that, I ate half a loaf of amazing bread dipped in obscene amounts of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Amazing bread dipped in obscene amounts of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

At some point in there, I ordered two entire meals from Arbys and ate them both at once. And I almost forgot. Two days ago, I subjected myself to this...

This looks dangerous.

The "Captain's Catch" at Perkins. Your eyes do not deceive you. What you are looking at is a large plate covered with a layer of french fries. On top of that, is a stack of onion rings, a pile of jumbo shrimp, and two massive pieces of cod. Off to the side, surrounding three tubs of sauce and butter, are little fried things that I couldn't even identify. And yes, all of these things were fried.

I ate all of this. I didn't even hesitate. Not even this random salad can make me feel better about the ordeal.

Random.

So as I sat in the audience watching the SCSU Huskies destroy Michigan Tech, I started to really regret buying that last hot dog. I'm gonna really have to look into adjusting my eating habits.

All that aside, I had a fun time at the hockey game, my girlfriend is coming over soon, and I don't live in Africa. So life is good.

Yours,

Cody M. Logeland

This is Not Good

It is currently Day 4 of the new year. So far, things are NOT going well. I have broken nearly every one of my resolutions and I am just about as depressed as I ever have been. I thought things would improve as my attitude improved, but things aren't going well.

Now I am on the brink of some very tough decisions...

This is not me.

I am not very optimistic. I'm frustrated about things. I'm frustrated because I'm frustrated. And more than anything, I'm frustrated because my frustration is hurting the situation.

*Sigh... My blog has been deviating a bit from it's intended purpose lately. It is just so hard to be funny when I'm feeling down... Hoping things get better.

Cody M. Logeland

2011

Alright then, I've had some time to decompress. I'm a lot less angry than I was on New Years Eve and I think I am ready now to officially start 2011. A day later than everyone else, but there you go. I completely revamped my original list of resolutions. I'm actually very excited. I feel like this new year could really be the start to a new me. A more assertive and productive me. Because I think I spend a lot of time waiting. Too much time. Well now it is time to stop waiting for life and to start living life.

I'm going to start working on projects and pursuing goals again. I've got an awesome opportunity to get great grades next semester and continue my efforts to bring my GPA back to a satisfactory level. I've been cast in the lead role of a great play. It is an amazing opportunity to establish myself as a serious and competent actor. I'm really going to pour myself into this production. Also I am going to start writing screenplays again, and more than that, I'd actually like to do some filming.

In addition to my previously listed resolutions, I have to shift my priorities. I've been putting too much of myself into the wrong areas of my life. It took a long time for me to fully realize this. I feel great now that I have. No more self-pity. I'm a capable person. I am independent, but also not afraid to depend on others. I can lose more weight to finally meet my personal goal. I can spend more time with friends and expand socially.

2011 is the year of self improvement. And it starts now. ;)

Cody M. Logeland