At Least The View Is Nice.

At least the view is nice.

Theatre Tips and Tricks:

Doors!

More accurately, how to keep doors where you want them:

So you've got a set, and it has a Door. But. Your stage isn't level, or your flat isn't square, or there's a strong airflow current or any number of things. And the door just won't stay Shut/Open/Ajar/In Place.

Paint brushes!

As you can see in the photo above, paint brushes secured to the back of the bottom corner of a door will work like a movable wedge.

They're flexible enough to slide against the floor when an actor moves the door intentionally, but if secured properly, will provide resistance against whatever gravitational or structural forces might conspire to swing the door when unattended.

For example:

This door wants to swing towards me, which has pushed the brush back as it attempts to settle. The pressure of the bristle mass, however, are gripping against the riser and pinning the door in place.

You can increase or decrease the 'hold' by moving the brush up or down the door panel.

And it's virtually undetectable from the front.

Just a tiny blob in the bottom corner of the door.

Hope that helps!

That feeling when you've got 90/10s and still insist on driving off road because why the heck not.

Most of the mud got scrubbed away on the Parkway but I'll take my "chicken strips" with pride.

PS: Judging a rider's skill by the edge of their tires is stupid and you know it.

and with that, I'll never fly DELTA again

https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/bmkjiz/and_with_that_ill_never_fly_delta_again/

-teeth grits- Plaid overshirts in the 90s and early 2000s.

Durable. Versatile. Hide damage and stains well. Warm. Soft.

And then the hipsters came along.

I suffered through mockery and humiliation just for these damn posers to grow a neckbeard and buy a newsie cap and call it their own unique fashion.

Selling it at godsdamned Hot Topic.

In MY day you had to hunt the thrift stores because the only NEW shirts at Zellers were orange and purple patterned!

And then everyone now just presumes I'm one of them.

I don't even LIKE vinyl!

does anyone else secretly have that “i liked it before it was cool” complex but wont admit it

Unacceptable.

So I'm riding home last night, just after 11pm, and my normal route takes me along the Niagara Parkway to Queenston Heights, site of a massive failed assault by the Americans back in the War of 1812, and resting place of General Isaac Brock. The zone is a giant public park, memorial, and forest full of hiking paths along the Bruce Trail.

Note the 'forest' part.

So it's with some dismay that I notice a camp fire blazing away about 30 yards down one of the path access pull offs.

At first I'm like "not my problem," which is quickly overridden with "of course it fucking is, I'm a Canadian, aren't I?" So I double back and do a slow pass, looking for people.

I don't see anyone, but of course it's dark and in a dark forest. So I park, pop on my hazard lights, and approach the camp, flashlight on and pocket knife out (folded!).

Best case scenario; couple young people having an ignorantly improper marshmallow cook out. As long as they had a water pail or sand or an extinguisher... It's wrong but... Just be careful.

Bad scenario; I get jumped by some cracked up sociopaths and take as many of them with me as I can.

But what I found was worse.

Completely fucking unattended fully ablaze camp fire built with no brush clearance or containment pit in the middle of the hiking path. Surrounded by tall grasses, which embers were being blown into freely. And two deep tire ruts where a vehicle had struggled to get out of the mud when the party ended.

What the ever loving fuck.

At this point a car stops and another guy walks up asking if the fire is mine. Fuck no. He starts kicking it flat, but as you can see from the video, even knocked to coals, the fire would catch wind and pop back to life in seconds.

There was a car sized puddle about twenty feet away, but neither of us had a means to carry the water to the blaze.

So I had to call the fire department.

Who had to suit up and drive over.

To spray down a fire pit.

Firefighters who may have been needed at an actual emergency.

A camp fire that could have sparked a park wide blaze, destroying the historic sites, recreational grounds, wildlife refuge, and millionaire housing.

Why?

I must stress this was a -camp fire-. Whomever had made and left it had made zero effort to douse the blaze, stamp out the embers, or disperse the coals.

There is no "maybe they just did a poor job" or "didn't know better." They had enough knowledge to BUILD the damn thing, they would understand the inherent danger leaving it would cause.

Just... Fucking unacceptable.

Thanks to other random passerby and the respondent fire crew.

You can see the ruts left behind. Just above the car.

PEOPLE. YOU CAN DO BETTER.