Xmas recap...

Well, we made it through. My mom actually cried when I gave her the painting and dad seemed to enjoy his as well. We also managed to see a lot of old friends and steer clear of any maudlin Xmas wallowing, which seems to be especially prevalent in my family. Small victory.

Xmas eve we boarded the Coast Starlight for our ride to Seattle which is one of the most scenic and romantic trips you can make on a train in the U.S. This trip was a little different than the last one we took in that we spent the bulk of our time playing with little kids instead of holed up in our room reading books.

The adventure started in the Oakland Amtrak station when two little girls (Alexis 7, Caitlin 5) approached me as I was playing my uke and started asking me questions about it. We ended up singing some songs together and making up our own songs to pass the time which was cool cause I love kids. Their mom was on a bench about thirty feet away and was obviously in a bad way. It looked like she had tied one on to get through the holiday and, indeed, it turns out that she had. So, I avoided talking with her too much. (Being around drunks makes me itchy. Especially since I used to be one.) So Sharon and I concentrated on the kids and played games with them. At this point the mom asks if we can watch them while she steps outside to have a cigarette and after I say "sure", it occurs to me how insane that request is. Who asks strangers to look after their little girls in a train station? I guess a drunk who needs a nicotine fix. Wow.

Xmas Day
When the train finally gets there, we part ways and I tell the girls that after breakfast the next morning, Sharon and I will come visit them and we can sing some more songs. So, after we get cleaned up, we venture down to where they are and find that mom is either: A.) still drunk from the night before or B.) Has gotten an early start and cooked herself some Popov on toast. Messy. The kids are obviously embarrassed by their mother's behaviour and ask if we can take them to the play room. Again, insanely enough, the mother thinks this is a great idea. Fine with us. So, we find out while we are playing with the lame toys that Amtrak supplies to calm the kiddies that Alexis' birthday happens to fall on Christmas. Wow. Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, your mom is blotto and you're on a train. Bleak. So, Sharon, in a fit of genius thinking, remembers that she has a puzzle in her bag that she had purchased for her little sister who is seven and runs back to the car to get it, along with a frog ornament that she had bought for herself. People, it was heart breaking to see how much these girls appreciated these gifts.

Soon it was time for them to get off the train and time for us to say goodbye. We had spent most of our train ride with these total strangers and it was amazing how much these girls had grown on us.

Sharon and I don't and won't have kids and we're fine with that. We have other people's kids in our life and we do the wacky uncle/auntie thing pretty well. That's our schtick. But when you see a pair of kids that are suffering, it breaks your heart and makes you want to scoop them up and show them a better life. Odds are, we'll never see those two girls again, but I can't stop thinking about what the future holds for them. It makes me more than angry.

On the train...

Ukein' on Amtrak


Sharon at the station

Image Googling...

I was looking for a picture of me and a friend dancing at a swing event and couldn't remember who took it, so I decided to do an image search for Paul Overton. I didn't find it. But I did find this guy who is also named Paul Overton. It's good to know there are more of me out there and, hey, this guy looks pretty cool. Sort of.


The other Paul Overton

So, it got me thinking that all of my friends must also have google doppelgangers (or googlegangers) and that I could create my own alternate reality by image searching everyone's name and finding their double. For instance, here is the other Austin Nava:


also...

This is Ross White


The other Ross White

and what if all these people actually knew eachother as well? It's a movie people. Somebody write it.

Time warp...

Tonight we went and ran the dance party in San Francisco that we used to own when we lived here. It was great to see everybody but weird in that it seemed like we had never moved to North Carolina and started our lives over. All night long I was stuck on that idea. The building is the same, the people are the same, the party...same. We slipped right back in to the old conversations with the ease of old friends and, BAM, it was 1998 again. Looking around the room at how much hadn't changed was also a huge reminder of how much I have changed. I'm unstuck and that feels good. Can't wait to get back home.

p.s. Special K, happy birthday. You are one of my favorite people on this planet.

k, g'night.

99 rooms...

I love this site. If you've got some time to kill, it's worth it.

Best books in the world...

If you have not seen this series of books, go check them out. The series began in 1958 with This is Paris and continued through ten more editions including This is New York, This is London, and This is San Francisco. I first saw them in a cafe about a month ago in New York and completely fell in love with them. If you're looking for a great last minute present for the kids or for yourself, pick one of these books up.

On the more modern side...

Over four hundred pages and 25 lbs of bitchin' poster art. If you ever get tired of looking at it (which is unlikely), you can always use it as an anchor for your dinghy.

Left coasting...

Sunrise in my parent's back yard

Got in late last night after a smooth flight. Crammed in to cattle class of course and being that it was a night flight, the lady in front of me just HAD to recline her fucking seat ALL the way. Grr. The E-ticket machine at Dulles gave us the option of upgrading to economy plus with five extra inches of leg room for $40 bucks extra (each) and we declined. Fools! Now we know where they stole all that leg room from. My seat! Hey United, eat it, o.k.? We're called human beings, you bastards! Anyway, we didn't crash, so, thanks for that.

PTs guitar

I thought PT was nuts when he said he wanted to try to stencil his family on a guitar for his first project, but check it out. great job PT.

Deep denial...

Man, I cannot believe I'm getting on a plane tomorrow. I'm doing all the things I normally do to prepare for a trip but my brain is still, somehow believing that I'm not leaving. Gah.

Last night was our last Tub Cousins rehearsal of the year. We had a reduced group due to holidays but it was still great for me. We did a couple La Rondes which got me really thinking about getting information out there and also having a "deal" in each scene. The first one was rough and it was very clear who had provided enough material for his teamates to then run with in the later montage. The second one was better, faster and just generally more fun. Everyone made more exciting choices and provided some great dynamics which we then blew out later on. Learning alot.

Tomorrow, it's on to California and by nightfall I'll be seeing my parents. Dad has, apparently, dropped twenty pounds so I'll be excited to congratulate him in person. See you on the left coast.

Ryloc can cut!

Ryan is stencilling. Yes he is. These are his first two stencils. Can you believe it?

Alex One is really fun...

Check it

Abe Lincoln Jr.

I love this crazy bird. He's everywhere

Art I like

Susie Ghahremani

Hermit day...

I didn't mean to, but I ended up spending the entire day in my house. This happens alot. When you work from home, you can spend days without seeing another soul if you aren't careful. Which can be cool for awhile but it whittles down your sanity into little slivers if you don't make the concerted effort to move elsewhere. Today was a sanity whittling day. I don't know when I woke up. I had coffee, took the dogs for a walk, and now it's eleven nineteen p.m. How did that happen?

It was also an "afraid of the phone day". I just didn't answer it. The effort involved seemed like it might kill me, so I let it ring. I think part of the problem is that I didn't really have any art therapy today. I did a bit of computer art but it's not the same as working with your hands. I feel like a terrier today.

Squirrell. I gotta go.

Hardcore Canadian White rap...

This site is amazing. Read the interview, listen to the MP3s, bathe in the idiocy.

From the front page:

"WHATS REALLY HOOD, THIS IS JOHNNY CRACK, THE SHIT YOUR ABOUT TO HEAR IS RATED R FOR RAW. VIEWER DISCRETION IS STRONGLY ADVISED FOR YOU PUNK MARK ASS BITCHES. I CAN TELL YALL HOMO RAPPERS AINT ACTUALLY FREESTYLIN. MAKE SURE U COP MY CD. HOLLA AT ME IN THE MESSAGE BOARD. ONE"

It almost makes me angry, but then I just feel sorry for him.

If you are not an improviser...

Fuck you. Er, I mean, this post will probably bore you.

Two shows tonight. Four String Samurai had our first show tonight and it felt pretty good. I felt frozen for the first part, but cool things started to happen about ten minutes in. I really like the organic transformations between scenes that we've been working on and when things settled down, I felt like we had a good show. We left each other hanging a few times and we played for over a half hour, but I have great hopes for this team and this new form.

Second show. Tub Cousins. I don't know. It was funny. I love my teamates, I just don't know where I fit in yet. I still feel like I'm the baby of the team and consequently am still waiting too long to get involved. I'm leaving my teamates hanging when they need my support the most because I feel like I'm not willing to make the "big mistake". It's bullshit and I know it. I have a feeling that time together will iron this thing out and I'll find my place. I think I'm just spinning my wheels too much about it right now.

My favorite moment tonight:

Me: I made you a present.
PT: Oh man, that's really cool.
Me: It's an homage.
(pause)
PT: It sure is.

Xmas and My Grandparents...

I know I've been copping out by just posting stencils lately, but the truth is, I haven't had much to say that I've felt that I could put into words. Wow, that was a monumentally crappy sentence. Edit? Leave it. Anyweasel, art has been good therapy lately. Christmas is the absolute worst time of year so having something to do with my hands (get your mind out of the gutter) has been great. I was really proud of the suitcase I did and, I'm not gonna lie, it was really gratifying to see how happy Jeff was that he ended up with it. I'm finally feeling like I'm fitting in to the improv family at DSI and that feels good too. I love the two teams that I'm on more every day. What's weird is that I'm dreading the trip back to California for Christmas. I will love seeing my parents, but a sufficient amount of time has passed that I think it's going to be weird seeing some old friends. I don't know, and that scares me. What I do know is that I've been thinking a lot about my grandparents lately and how much I miss them. I love the photo that I did this painting from and my mom does too, so I hope she likes the painting. It makes me happy to look at them, but it also makes me long for the days when I could talk to them too. Well, how was that for a fucked up blog entry? I'm out.

Elvis on vinyl...

Stencil Party!

Had a bona fide stencil fiesta yesterday. Seven of us with X-acto knives flying turned out some awesome work. Tremendous, actually, considering these are all first time stencilers. Here's a sample:


PT's portrait of his Aunt


Laine's Mom's dog Caper


Heidi's stencil of Ross on their honeymoon in Menorca

Cheers guys. Good work.

Goth Girl suitcase...

Made this suitcase for a secret Santa party for our improv group.

Six years...

I was talking to Sharon last night about sobriety. Mine in particular. (I had been asked at a holiday party why I didn't drink) We were talking about how alot of people, when they clean up, kind of wave it around like a flag, annoying their friends and family with their "great accomplishment" and how I've really tried hard not to do that. It's weird because people want to know why you don't drink and when you give them a short answer they assume that you don't want to talk about it beacause you're embarrassed. In actuality, I don't want to talk about it because it's fucking boring! I'd rather stab myself in the eye than listen to somebody's story about their journey to sobriety. This is why I could never swing with the whole AA thing. It works for many, many people and I think that's great, but I just couldn't do it. It never helped me to stand up and tell my story and it sure as fuck didn't help me to listen to other people tell theirs. (Having said that, the caveat is that if a friend of mine wants to talk about it because they are struggling with the addiction, I'd be happy to.)

Anyway, I just passed my six year anniversary and usually I remember and give myself a little pat on the back on December first. This year though, I forgot. And I think that's pretty great.

Masked Girl...

10 layers on vinyl.

Prov-da...

I like that I have three improv shows this week. Last night we had a decent show at Skylight and won the cagematch, which was cool. More importantly, I felt semi-relaxed onstage with my team for the first time. I think it's funny that after ten years of being onstage as a dancer and an emcee, that I still get such powerful flashes of stagefright from time to time. What is that about?

In other news, My friend Lindsay sent me this. Try it.

Stencils and football...

Spent the day teaching Ryan and Austin how to make stencils and watching football. It was great. They took to it like ducks to water and did some great stuff. Unfortunately, I forgot to get pictures before they split. Safe to say that I've converted two more people to the stencil addiction. Mwah, ah, ah. Perfect Sunday.

Austin: My next stencil's going to be a dragon.
Paul: What, like a Chinese dragon?
Austin: No, a real dragon.
Ryan: Austin, dragons aren't real.
Austin: Dinosaurs were real. They could've breathed fire.
Ryan: I cannot prove that dinosaurs did not breathe fire.


It's not JUST girls from Boston who love Austin, dogs do too.

Goth girl stencil...

At the Durham Parade...

Sharon: Do you think the parade is almost over?

Paul: I don't know. We could walk to the beginning of the parade route and check it out.

Sharon: Then we'd have to walk all the way back.

Paul: And that would be tragic.

Sharon: It would when I'd be listening to your ass whine about it.

That's why she's my girlfriend folks.

Eight things...

Two nights ago, I asked the universe, out loud, what I was supposed to be doing with my life. The next morning I got an email about a job posting at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke. Seems that they're looking for an assistant coordinator for their Youth Radio program. BAM. Thank you universe! I shall apply immediately.

Joe...

Stencil...