Old videos need to see the light of day. This one is from a good few months ago.

Emily had been pleading for a bunk bed for over a year. Here is the video from the day she got it.

That was an epic Opening Ceremony.

I can’t fathom how the planning for something so huge would even begin!

I was quite cynical going into it. I’m in England at the moment and the entire country has been buzzing with excitement/dread for these games, and particularly for the opening ceremonies which were designed by Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle. It couldn’t possibly be as grim as Trainspotting, could it? Could it?? That would have been pretty awesome. But the result was just as spectacular.

The four-hour extravaganza (yes, four hours!) was far from perfect, but it managed to pay tribute to (the positive aspects of) Great Britain’s industrial, geographical, political, and cultural history and identity. Pacing is bound to be a problem with a project of this scale, but on the whole it was a very well-organized, inspired, dramatic, and masterfully-executed production.

My biggest complaint was that there was simply too much going on to see or appreciate. That was my biggest complaint, but not my only one. The blast through Britain’s musical past was a hodgepodge of psychedelic outfits and neon face paint that ended up being utterly vacant, never letting any of the musical masterpieces shine. The whole plot line of the girl losing her phone amidst a flurry of text messages and status updates was totally contrived and unnecessary. The full-scale song-and-dance celebration of the National Health Service was a bit much. David Beckham driving a speedboat didn’t need to happen. The Paul McCartney sound cock-up was painfully cringe-worthy. And finally: 27 million pounds. Ouch.

With all that said, the positives far outweighed any negatives there might have been. The British countryside, complete with horse-drawn carriages, cricket and rugby matches, grassy knolls, Kenneth Branagh reciting from The Tempest, and 70 sheep was gorgeous. Factory chimneys rising from the Earth to symbolize the industrial revolution were amazing and poignant. The giant Olympic ring being forged and then rising into the air was a fantastic visual achievement. The entire video with James Bond and the Queen had me laughing out loud. I really enjoyed the children in hospital beds with their lit blankets and how it linked up with all the infamous villains from British literature and culminated with Mary Poppins flying in and saving the day. But I missed Peter Pan. Even funnier than Her Majesty parachuting from a helicopter was the whole Mr. Bean sketch. It was spot on. Maybe my favorite part of the entire ceremony was the powerful dramatization of Britain’s struggle to come to terms with mortality, choreographed by Akram Khan. And the elegant cauldron, set ablaze from the Olympic torch and showered by a regal display of fireworks from above, was a dazzling way to end a truly epic evening.

Beach volleyball, gymnastics, and volleyball begin tomorrow. Let the games begin! I know where I’m going to be for the next two weeks.

Fate sent me to see Regina Spektor in concert this week. She was fantastic.

I’ve never really been a big Regina Spektor fan. But that’s just because I never stopped to listen. The universe appears to believe that I would really dig her because I have been slowly channeled in her direction for years now.

I probably never would have even heard a single song of hers if my friend Josh hadn’t recommended I give her a listen back in 2009. And I did. And I liked what I heard. But apparently not enough to seek out more. But the seed was planted.

So when I saw on last.fm a couple of months ago that she was to play in Barcelona, I thought, “Why the heck not?”. But with Bat Boy and life happening, it soon slipped off my radar.

And then last week my friend Ayesha posted on Facebook that she had a couple of extra tickets to the concert and I took it as a sign that I was meant to go. So I asked around if anyone wanted to go with me. I wasn’t about to go by myself. But nobody wrote back so I accepted that it just wasn’t meant to be.

And then, the day before the concert, my friend Jonathan called and said he’d be interested in going to the concert with me if I was still up for it. I called Ayesha, secured the tickets, and we were locked in.

And I’m so glad I went. Regina was charming and humble and amazingly talented and funny and cute and emotional and confident and she totally rocked. The concert was sublime.

High point of the concert:

Low point of the concert: being surrounded by obsessively fanatic 22-year-old American girls.

Things that excite me today:

• Going to see Regina Spektor tonight
• Playing in my first volleyball tournament of the year this weekend
• Waiting to hear back from two film auditions I went on last week
• Flying through the pre-production of the next play I’ll be directing
• Planning our (multiple) summer holidays
• Ordering books on Amazon to pick up when we’re in England
• Voicing two different cartoons today
• Seeing my kids skip home from summer camp, happy as can be, on a gorgeous Barcelona afternoon

The 50 families of Emily’s grade at school try to get together once a month to celebrate all of the birthdays from that month. We usually plan a little party after school in one of the parks in the neighborhood and everyone chips in for snacks and gifts for the kids celebrating. The June birthday party was celebrated last week and just so happened to coincide with their penultimate day of school, bringing the festiveness of the event to a fever pitch.

Congratulations on graduating P5, Emily. Next year: Primer!

I took some pictures at the party. Wanna see a bunch of photos of kids you probably don’t know? Here ya go!

My life has been nothing but Bat Boy for the past four months. Now that the show has closed, it feels like there are 40 hours in a day. I forgot what it was like to have free time! So what does a guy do to fill all this newfound time? This is what this guy does:

The kids’ last day of school was Friday. So I’ve got that to keep me busy. I probably owe them a bit extra seeing as how I’ve spent so many weekends in the theater recently.

I’ve registered for my first beach volleyball tournament of the year with a couple of friends from work. That’s in two weeks. I’d better get my beach legs on.

We’ve been planning our summer holidays. It looks like we’ll be spending two weeks in England, one week in Berlin, and one week in Menorca. Spreadsheets are practically generating themselves.

I’ve got a metric ton of photos piled up, all ready to sort through and upload. They date back to the early Cretaceous period. Seriously, I’m way behind.

My two fantasy baseball leagues weren’t handcuffing me to the Internet enough, so I’m very glad I’ve discovered Conquer Club, “the ultimate online multiplayer world domination game”. It’s Risk, but with hundreds of different maps. I try to keep about 15 games going at a time. I love it.

Oh yeah, I also have a job. HP is doing a much better job at keeping me busy now. Things had really slowed down over the past six months, which was perfect for me! And now that the play is finished, work is picking up again. I couldn’t have planned it better.

I’m also working on three different cartoon series at the moment. These are ongoing projects that probably won’t be completed till the end of the year. I can’t wait till they’re finished and you can see them!

And since I’m a glutton for punishment, I’ve already begun work on the next play. This one won’t be ready until December (we’re not holding auditions till September), but we’ve already had a couple of production meetings and we’re scoping out some venues tomorrow. Should be lots of fun. I’ll let you know as soon as the info goes public.

There. That should keep me busy for a while. I was also thinking about maybe doing another lipdub before we go on our summer holidays, but there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day 🙂

As a tribute to the beautiful Sarah, the first and only person to read this blog, I would like to share with you just a few lovely photos I took at Sarah and David’s wedding.

The Speech

This was way back in July of 2010 so the kids look much younger in these pictures than they do now. Jan looks about the same. No, she looks a bit younger now. But I digress… It was a beautiful summer’s day in the English Fens. Sarah is from the neighboring village to where Jan grew up so we could have walked from Jan’s parents’ house to the wedding. But we didn’t. And it was a wonderful event. Lovely people in a lovely garden eating lovely food and drinking lovely beverages. Just lovely. And very English. If you’d like to take a gander at a few photos of some very beautiful people, just click on the following link and be whisked away:

OK, let’s get the ball rolling with some videos. I’ve got so many videos and photos and stories piled up from before the play started, I don’t know where to start. That’s not true, I’m starting with a video. I’ve already said that.

Allow Sebastian to transport you to a mysterious and dangerous underwater world, filled with sharks, treasure, death-defying leaps, face climbing, and jellyfish poo. Enjoy.

Our most recent show has closed and life is finally back to normal. I’ve got soooo many things to tell you about. So, is anybody still out there?

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