An almost daily update on my journey into trying just about anything that ever interested me. Tap dancing? Photography? Video making? Coaching an NFL football team?
Leonardo Da Vinci (Italian for "The Vinci") was the definition of a Renaissance Man. He's a Renaissance Man's Renaissance Man if there ever was a Renaissance Man's Renaissance Man.*
A word that sometimes describes his masterpiece, The Mona Lisa, is that her smile is melancholy.**
So a Budding Renaissance Man (BRM) needs to be able to recognize and create images that evoke melancholy. Accordingly, I submit this:
I am calling it Too Late.
Now, what I am calling all the people who gobbled up all the birthday doughnuts*** at work without thinking I was tied up all day so they should probably save me one is ...
Oh never mind. A BRM needs to be forgiving. I guess.
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* Yes, I did win a bet that I could use Renaissance Man 4 times in one sentence. The wager was pride. Though I'm craving a juicy peach. I should have bet for that.
** melancholy - a feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause.
*** doughnut - is how it is spelled. The day donut became an acceptable spelling of doughnut was the day it became inevitable America would elect Donald Trump. The writing (or should I say "riting" because who needs all the letters?) was on the wall. And the Mister Donut sign.
Yes. This is an issue with me. You haven't heard the last of this.
Recently on Facebook, I showed this picture from the show In Stitches:
My Facebook comment was, "Where's Waldo?"*
While I don't want to get in the habit of making up skills that a Budding Renaissance Man (BRM) needs to always improving, being a good Waldo is not something just anyone can do. It takes a certain confidence. A certain presence. A certain je ne sais quoi.**
Yes, I do believe I have said je ne sais quoi. For Waldoing***, at least.
Some of the underlying skills for Waldoing are being a bit of naughty in a lovable, playful way:
And being the quintessential (if not the absolute essential) photo bomber:
A most certain je ne sais quoi?
Yes. A certain je ne sais quoi.
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* - I submit the phrase "Where's Waldo?" is okay to use even if you are looking for a guy in audaciously green pants.
** - Je ne sais quoi - something (such as an appealing quality) that cannot be adequately described or expressed.
So it's a word/phrase to describe what words can't describe. Gotta admit, the French do think of everything. And I am sure they have a word for thinking of every thing.
The Germans, for the record, would have made it one single word. "Jenesaisquoi" with a "shein" on the end to make it sound not pretty. It's what Germans do.
As for attribution on the definition, I say, "Thanks, Merriam. And hey, say hi to Webster for me."
*** - "Waldoing" is hereby a real word to describe a real thing. This is an official power of a Budding Renaissance Man.
With rehearsal for In Stitches cancelled* because of snow and lousy road conditions (or is it lousy snow and road conditions?), this BRM** turned to the quieter buddingness*** of photography.
With the outside freshly arctic and glowing from the streetlights, AND my neighbor's dog staring at my house and then running away, I attempted art:
Now, if I knew how to set the shutter speed faster, it would have been cooler. My cropping choice was to have the dog not exactly in the middle because that seemed like a pedestrian choice.****
It's what Budding Renaissance Men do. Figure out what the don't know how to do. Then they figure out how to do it.
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* - Cancelling a rehearsal during Tech Week is not a good thing. This is where we get the Big Mo (as in momentum). Not worried really, but... stay tuned.
**- BRM is a registered trademark of Budding Renaissance Man. Sort of.
*** - Early in the blog building effort, a new vocabulary is developed. Not all the words are keepers. Like "buddingness." Maybe I should just go with bud. That might roll off a clever tongue:
"turned to the quieter bud of photography."
Yes. I will go with bud.
**** - Artists dismiss things that pedestrians do as, well, pedestrian.
Heading into In Stitches Tech Week*, I'll be looking for ways to use my ability to do stuff to help, and ways to learn how to do something new just because someone has to do it.
If the picture below has 10 fingers in it, I've found success. If not...
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Being a BRM** means taking pride in being able to do things you work to learn.
So I have to channel my BRM Mojo*** to get better at doing the choreography for this number (where I am trying to stay hid way in the back!):
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* - Tech Week is the week before a show where the technical parts of the show (lights, sound, dressing the set) all get done. And it's the time where the performers start facing the reality that the show is going to happen.
And oh, oh... I better learn all the real words to the songs I'm in the chorus of so I've been faking it! (If you don't know your spoken lines, you're just screwed. No one will have sympathy for you.)
** - BRM is a trademark of Budding Renaissance Man. Sort Of.
*** - BRM Mojo? I like it. This may be the first BRM idea to get it's own logo.****
In making this trailer for In Stitches, there were lots of little challenges that came from little ideas that were part of a whole vision.
Getting a the dancing dude proportioned right got complicated. Originally I wanted the top of the guy to be on the bottom of the screen, and his feet along the top. At that size, it pixelated. Went to Plan B.
I was very happy to figure out everything move across the screen. That was "the big learn"* for this video. Still, why the top and bottom stop half-way though? Dough no.**
The combination of stills and video was fun. Taking good candid photos and capturing good video is a challenge in a rehearsal environment.
Making the frame graphic was a lot of work. The pictures were high res and my laptop really didn't want me to do it.
There's a big difference between directing a shoot and gathering snippets to meld into a video.
It would have been fun to have the cast's vocals instead of the Broadway cast soundtrack. I guess Budding Audio... pher (what are they called?) needs to be in the mix before I try that.
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* - I do like the sound of "the Big Learn." I could be a wealthy management consultant if I wrote a book called that. Note I am not concerned that the content. Only one in 10 people read the management books that their consultants recommend, anyway. And only one in twenty actually try to do it.
** - Dough No why I think I'm so damn funny for thinking of Dough No. But I gotta get a tee shirt with that on the front. On the back, too? Dough No.
The composition of the picture was deliberate. Wanted to catch the glare and shine of the sun. And my legs.
Remember, experimenting is what a budding Renaissance man does.*
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*That might be my way of saying, "Yea, that didn't really work. Not nearly as well as I hoped."
Or do Renaissance Men never admit less than perfection? I do think we (the royal "we" of the Renaissance Man collective?) know perfect when we see it. And we'll show it to you every time.
Blogging has been out of vogue for quite a while. Then again, so has writing. So has me trying to be vogue.
But as Peter Allen said in song, "Everything old is new again."*
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New Year's Resolutions - 2017
1: Change my name to Herb. Then, with trendy narcissism, become a herbologist.
2: Whenever possible, share my cupcakes.
3: Say "toddle-oo" instead of goodbye, "later gator" instead of just "later." Then, eventually, just "gator."
4: Revive All-Star Wrestling.
5: Totally forget about resolution #5.
6: Call every dog I see "Spot." Or "Stinky." But never both.
7: Rewrite "The Year of the Cat" to make it the "Year of the Rooster" - per the Chinese Zodiac. Deadline: January 28. **
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Why the sudden reappearance of my blog? Hmm. Maybe I should write about that.
Why the new name? Hmm. Maybe I should write about that.
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* This song appeared in the 1979 Movie "All That Jazz." It was a semi-autobiographical story directed by Bob Fosse. Hypothesis: Because it existed, the musical "Chicago" was called "Chicago" despite its great number that would have worked so marvelously as the title song, "All That Jazz."
** Thanks to my Facebook Buddies for pointing out that rather than rooster, the word "chanticleer" would work, or another word that the Facebook frowns on that is a single syllable (like "cat").
Thanksgiving is about traditions. That means doing the same thing and feeling good about it.
So, for the SEVENTH year in a row, here's the holiday classic Thanksgiving post...
... Like trying cornmeal dressing and saying "where have you been all my life?" Last year's addition of the song "A Goose for my Girl" certainly freshened up the traditions! Bet this year you've all rehearsed it to make it a song for the Thanksgiving table. I know I have.
I'm thankful that I have wonderful people all around me who like to laugh.
Tradition One - The Budding Ventriloquist Something For The Kids To Do Game
Tradition Two - WKRP In Cincinnati "The Turkey Drop"
Tradition Three - Wally Cox "Underdog Balloon" Tribute
Tradition Four - A song for the Thanksgiving table.
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Today is Thanksgiving, and Budding Ventriloquist is pleased to present two special holiday reruns. The first a Budding classic holiday tradition, and the second is perhaps the funniest Thanksgiving moment in television history.
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Tradition One
The Budding Ventriloquist
Something For The Kids To Do Game
While you are busy in the kitchen worrying about whether the turkey is done, if the stuffing has too much or not enough poultry seasoning, and why the pumpkin pies aren't as dark orange as you were expecting, the kids need something to do.
There are several more ventriloquist teams other than the four already circled. Can the kids find them?
Print this picture. Print it many times. Be sure to print it in color, or a few of them won't really be findable. Print it in the highest quality possible, because I am sure your printer ink wasn't very expensive.
(This was originally posted last year on Thanksgiving. I just know that it is going to become a holiday tradition as big as the Underdog* balloon in the Macy's parade.)
Tradition Two
WKRP In Cincinnati
"The Turkey Drop"
This should be Tradition Number One. It doesn't get any better.
After tons of searching and believing someone, somewhere, has posted this segment in it's full glory, I found it. (Actually, Jeff the IT guy at work found it for me. Bravo, dude.)
Whether something is the "funniest" is always a good debate. But there is no doubt, this was truly inspired.
If you jump to the 5:38 mark, that is where I like to start. But the set up is fun too, big guy.
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* Underdog (1964-1972 TV cartoon): Underdog, Shoeshine Boy’s heroic alter-ego, appeared whenever love interest Sweet Polly Purebred was being victimized by such villains as Simon Bar Sinister or Riff Raff. Underdog always speaks in rhymes, such as, “There’s no need to fear, Underdog is here!” His voice was supplied by Wally Cox.**
Underdog is now more famous for being a balloon than a cartoon. Not the worst thing that could happen, I guess. After all, he was a dog, and a cartoon dog besides. After everyone has forgot Foghorn Leghorn, they still know that there's no need to fear, Underdog was here.
** Wally Cox. Comedian, Classic nerd character and voice. He deserves an entire post as a Budding Ventriloquist: Early Influence. I'll get right on that.
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There was a time when a gathering at the house you grew up in may have included a moment where kids were shooed off to bed, and the adults got out "Party Records." Sold under-the-counter, these typically ribald recordings were the stuff adults didn't want your tender ears to hear, and your innocent minds to be forever corrupted by. And they would howl.
I guess we were on our own to get those jobs done. We were the generation that sneaked George Carlin albums into the house, so we gotter done, too. Just with naughty words unhid.
Party records were also where double entendre naughtiness reached high art. Here is one such masterpiece party record by a true artist of doggerel, Benny Bell. A lost Thanksgiving treat.
