Tabishland

As someone who has played barely an hour of computer games in my life and who is inherently intimidated by Skype, I'm emboldened to wonder if the next generation of the Tabishland blog is to be found on some SecondLife real estate...

The perfect combination of technology for the yet-to-grow-up Tull/Trek/YouTube/HS theatre misfits who are still here as we approach a 300th entry. Tech-head Joe, your thoughts, since you'll be the one to lead us there.

Please alert DRT or Irene that they're 7 away from being on deck. Close to 11K hits, most of them are Kim and Nell and somebody in Yemen.

Bored Week-end Bloggers! We've been batting age around all week, let's find out how old some of us really are. It takes about a minute. Shockingly, it turns out I belong in the year 1970.

"1970 - 1979: Bold and brash, you take life by the horns. Whether you're partying or protesting, you give it your all!"

*whew* what a relief. Only 36 years out of date.

Nell's last entry got me feeling all schmaltzy, verklempt and warmly nostalgic, so I thought I'd send out my favorite holiday card-- a little early-- to all my new old friends and before the blog fades away. Believe it or not, I'm doing this without an ounce of sarcasm.

You're another post closer to #300 Tim.

More random observations: Even in a suit, Hansmann still looks like the kid from "Almost Famous". The boys in leiderhosen is killing me. The comedy team of Hoffman and Day remains ever reliable.

Eric used to say that all the time. I guess it's from video games, when you got a bonus game? I don't know why it popped into my head today but it did and I had to say it to you all.

Bonus Situation.

Anne, Grac(i)e, Bonnie Smith, Anthe Moss and me. Wilma and my family are in the background, too. Baby bro is up front (now an aerospace engineer).

Grace or Anne - do you remember what these occasions were?

Oh lord, to be able to fit in those size jeans again!

Nell, tell your daughter not only are you "cool", you're as "cool" as the "dudes" in the audience. "Yeah!!!" I mean, "Yeah!!!" (link in title.)

Random observations: Steve Early was in both of Kim's weddings, go figure. The SOM wedding defies description; I just wish they had put EJ in leiderhosen too. The comedy team of Hoffman and Day never fails to disappoint. Hansmann and Magee are looking exceptionally virile and metrosexual.

Because I'm lucky enough to live in Indiana, I often run into people we went to high school with. I work with some of them. This week I was talking with one of these girls, Deb, about class reunions. I mentioned Tabishfest and how it was so nice to reconnect with friends and how everyone commented that this was the type of reunion they enjoyed. This conversation prompted her to go home and google an old school friend. She found the friend's sister-in-law, called her, got her friend's number and called the friend. They talked and planned their own reunion. Deb said she wouldn't have done this if I hadn't told her about Tabfest.

The moral of my story is "Don't be afraid to reconnect". And to all you lurkers out there, jump in. It's not difficult and we would love to hear from you. Even if you just say "Hi".

Most of us have seen this picture, but I figure since Tim is looking for new posts and Eric has abandoned us, it's a great time to put this up there for comment. As Joe said on the original site, "Prom night, 1978: I've never seen Eric or Dave happier, though Dave was disappointed Eric didn't spring for the tux and the limo."

Probably many of you know about The Clarks, the rock band from IUP. A couple of days ago I brought home one of their CDs and laid it on the computer desk to transfer to my MP3. Emily saw it and asked what I was doing with it. When I told her, she looked at me in disbelief, saying "But Mom, I like them! Do you know they started at IUP?" Oh yes, Old Mom likes something the kid likes! And they're performing at the Indiana Theatre Nov. 2 and 3 so I think Emily and I will be attending a rock concert together!

Def: Posting entries, while in a giddy frame of mind, that on self-reflection and dissection the next day seem truly mindless and idiotic. Perhaps driven by a feeling of "graphophilia" in which one solipsistically believes that everything one commits to print is oh-so-clever.

But we are within 21 of #300...

Back to work. On call. Can someone else take over the mindless posting for awhile? 22 more, but save #300 for MISTER Tabish.

Or are you getting worried that this blog obsession will jeopardize your chance for tenure or an Oscar?

Joe mentioned being at a "big mime gig", but all I see is a big mime's ass. This picture makes me sad; tears of a clown kind of thing...

The set was kind of neat with a low riser to define the interior and pink stencil wallpaper that looked period. The "cabin" was an abstract frame of 1x3 that flew in and out. Oh, and the pump REALLY WORKED.

After graduating from Indiana Area Senior High School, I got out of dodge for my college years. On occasion, some of the high school buds would come up for a weekend visit. Ian, Chip, Joe, Scott and Dave Putt all made a trip or two. Recently I found some photos from one of those weekends. These date from my senior year, 82-83, at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. The image above is on the porch of the house where I lived. You can easily pick out Ian, Chip, Joe, Scott, and myself. The other characters are campus buddies of mine, Ed and Bill are in standing in the middle, while Tim is in front of me and Mike is in the lower right corner. The image was taken at the very beginning of the Gin & Tonic Frisbee Golf Open in the spring of ‘83. This was an informal affair held on the college campus.

There is also a post-script to this image. My step-son is now in his junior year at Allegheny. My wife and I went to help him settle into his new apartment over Labor Day weekend. We found he is living in this same house, and has the exact same room I had. The place has a newer coat of paint, but still has that ‘college hovel’ vibe to it.



Image two may have been later in the evening. There was some sort of air band contest that night and we slapped together an inspired performance of “I Fought the Law”, by the Clash. We came in second place that night, losing to a bunch of frat boys rolling through Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With your Best Shot”. The lead singer was a football player in drag, so that ranked high on the entertainment scale. We had fun anyway.

Ian, Chip, Joe, Scott….so yunz have any other recollections about those visits? I still have recordings of some of the radio station ID’s and PSA’s that we cut in the production studio on one of those visits. They are still classic. I need to convert those to MP3 files and share.

Ginger's on a new life adventure and we want updates!!!!

Thank god! Tabish has arrived. Joe, now I can really breath. Welcome, DR. T.

When you are in Paris try to find this really interesting restaurant, "Dans Le Noir" (c'mon Ian what's it mean??? or Boz you were Irene's protégée') If you haven't heard of it, it is really worth the try. I had an amazing experience. I would do a comic strip but well you'll figure it out. It would have been a great place for rehearsing TMW.

http://www.danslenoir.com/

As we wait for Elder Statesman Ron, our blom Kim, Dr Geoff or Boz to dignify the arrival of DRT, I humbly offer this haiku to honor the day:

Bloginity: GONE
Jolly mime, virtual walls
The Browness ascends

Please offer you own.

So, Joe worked with Robert Wilson, and had a Fine ARTistic association with Dizzy Gillespie. Ron has schmoozed with Alex Trebek and Jimmy Stewart. Last year, on the same fine May day in D.C., I had my photo taken with former Senator George Mitchell and shook hands with Franco Harris (who promptly raced away across the street at a speed rivaling his immaculate reception TD run). We have all worked with the legendary director who lends his name to the blog--and who is now one of its contributors. Can Tabishland produce more gripping tales of close encounters with the famous?

Tabishland

Ok, this is a test and my first blog (yes Tim, I read your blog). I have been reading all this for some time now and I admit to being dumbfounded but not surprised (remember I knew you all when you were teens!!). I assume most of you got my email, and if you didn't, it is because I don't have yours so let me know what it is. As I said in the email, summer was good and we are off to France soon. Since this a test, I think I have said enough!!!!! (If it works, I expect some praise, Tim!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

If he's so damn good, I'll hear a SoundClip provided by Joey "Noodles" Pino on NPR some morning. The challenge is on.

Okay, so I often think of Pino as about the cooleset guy I know. Not only did he tour Europe with Robert Wilson and he has a funny story about hanging back stage with Dizzie Gillespie - while one of the inventors of BeBop told fart jokes, but I just realized tonight that he teaches at the alma mater of Andy Warhol.

Because of an an earlier post, I started thinking about any Trust Exercises we did with Tabish back in the day- I couldn't think of any, but I did have a memory of something I had completely forgotten about: The game of MURDER.

I liked playing it, because it gave me an excuse to actually make eye contact with other humans. Hansmann was probably better than any of us because of his cool tinted glasses.

By the way, trying to find a good winking graphic made me aware that "Winking" is a fairly common last name. This is now my favorite last name ever. Say it out loud. It's fun. Randy Winking. Sir Francis Winking. Rhonda Winking. Winchester Winkling and his Western Swing Orchestra.

It helps if you say them with a bit of a speech impediment so that your "R's" sound like "W's."


Anyone want to try and invent an internet version of murder?

At what point should you NOT respond (or stop responding )to a series of emails? I sent a request to a colleague. They replied. Now should I send them another email to thank them for the reply and/or acknowledge their reply? It seems right - if we were talking face-to-face I would do this. But in email it's just one more thing in the inbox that is nothing more than a two word "Thank you" note, possibly taking up valuable time. Is that wasting the person's time? Is it unnecessary?

I'm speaking here as someone in an environment where email is the primary mode of communication - I field upwards of 40 emails a day just from school business.

I'd started putting those one or two word responses in the subject line of the email, thinking people would see the answer and then delete it without having to open it, but the urge to make sure there wasn't something else in the body made that a failure -- lots of "got your email, was there supposed to be a message too or was it just the subject line?"

I know there are a variety of folks in different worlds out there - is there a generally accepted point where email can cut off and not be rude?

Hopefully in the near future, you will see my first blog. Till then, I wish to health and peace -- tabish

Anybody that can figure out how to build pre-war London out of cardboard and masking tape, can learn how to blog. Even Ron was able to do it. So howzabout we CONCENTRATE and FOCUS a little bit. Joe is there for you. Trust him. Close your eyes and just fall back.

1. Excessive blogging
2. Bloking
3. Rapping
4. Solipsistiposting
5. Indianosendracalitis (nostalgia for high school theater)

This quintessential piece is for you Joe.

The ultra-hip, ever cool Pharm-girl in our company probably already knows all this. Lyrics to, oh, what's that band...ummm...The Darkness and their "One way ticket to Hell...and back" led me here. But Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4"?

So I worked a college fair in the Palumbo Center on the Duquesne University campus yesterday (9/17). Nell brought her daughter and a friend to town to review the wide range of possibilities featured at the many tables of this college fair. This photo is the best I have of this mini-reunion. From left to right, that would be my wife Cheryl Torsney, me in a remarkably non-Steve Martin pose, Nell, and Nell's daughter Emily.

The younger folks were a bit overwhelmed with all the college info available. They also seemed to enjoy talking to Cheryl about their futures. Nell and I tried to stay aside and let the kids find their own stuff. Of course, it was also crazy-busy. I think they stood beyond the crowd for nearly ten minutes as Cheryl and I talked to many students and parents about WVU. It was great making contact again and discussing a few 25-year-old memories.

And now back to your irregularly scheduled YouTube programing.

See, I do other things besides just blog.
PS: be careful about those OCD behaviors (she was a hair chewer).

I was curious to hear what current and former costumers (ROSEANN? GRACIE?) and light and set designers think about using with this stuff.

Ginger wisely wore out a nice outfit, so we couldn't make her mow grass. Nonetheless, "the puppies" (210 lbs. of them) still tried to give her clothes a farm-distressed look. Ultimately only Laika and Oscar were invited in to visit.

Frank held court. Ginger held court. My mom, Meredith and I stayed out of it.

The Miracle Worker was on TNT or AMC or DDT or some such tv network tonight. My six year old daughter Isadora followed it for awhile- mostly she liked imitating Helen by stumbling around the living room and making grunting noises to the cat. John Astin (Patty Duke's ex-husband and Sean "Sam Ganges" Astin's Dad) is a faculty member at Hopkins. He's completely bald and very gracious and worked with Charles Laughton in a production of Major Barbara is the 1950's. But, he gets annoyed if you ask him questions about Lord of The Rings.

How come Eric Jenkins didn't sport a goofy van dyke like the guy in the movie? He kinda looked like he was going to hypnotize Annie Sullivan.

"Look into the spinning disk. You are getting sleepy."

Will put up picture soon of Ginger trying to avoid getting knocked over by one of the dogs. Poor girl had to listen to Frank discussing old 1940's movies and DaVinci Code theories.

Here's Ginger:

I am at Weiner-Acres and it is a real nice place here! Gentleman farmer with mowing techmology, tons of dogs with his parents in the servent quarters serving dinner and great memories of by gone days in Indiana. Oh and wine slushies for desert! They sure know how to treat a girl nice!

Is there any evidence that the esteemed James Stewart was a Sendracian?

Since Tim is out mowing, I've taken over the controls.

I stopped at ye old record shoppe today and while browsing the vinyl ran across these two gems. I've been trying to find these for years and so I feel pretty lucky to have run across both in the same day.

To honor this auspicious day, I have provided y'all with a special YouTube video link in the title, that I'm sure at least Gracie will enjoy.

And to get today's Jr High School dance going, I pose the following query for comment:
What was the best performance:
-Jane as "Reba" in "You Can't Take it with You", a brilliant piece of politically incorrect casting.
-Tim as a screaming, spitting Nazi (2 lines)
-Susan's death-defying Sword Dance in "Brigadoon"
-Kim's creation of the Alps in the audience's mind using just the power of her voice, a slide projector and a papermache Rock.
-Eric as some stern father/captain character of your choice.

With the exception of Eric and Tim, everyone I've reconnected with from High School over the years has amounted to a connection found and then a connection lost again. It seems as though it isn't easy to hold things together between the reunions.

It occured to me that the blog really is our old community come back to life. It isn't just us as individuals - we are a group once again. We talk, we laugh, we share - we make fun of, we flirt, we gossip. All the same stuff we used to do. Without a lot of the angst. It's like High School Lite.

My husband says our blog is like a Junior High Dance ("not even a Senior High Dance," he says, "a Junior High Dance" a point that I get, and the underlying not-so-subtle dig). There are those out on the dance floor stirring things up and being extroverts, those dancing quietly on the sidelines, those standing up against the wall watching, those who stayed home. We're all there, kids. Even the ones who aren't there. It's good to be back.

N Mississippi Allstars. White boys, but totally legit. Tell y'all afunny story 'bout when they played in Chapel Hill sometime...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOO_tbpBFkI

The Real N Mississippi blues. I could live w/o Annie Lenox's dick friend, however.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcqiiWO0Rkc

The Fu. Worth it for the animal drummer and the pimped out vans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZhdq7hp2aE

Slow dance for the girls. One of our residents is big on them and dates the keyboardist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_U3qA7_wqY

I thought I'd jump in and create a thread for Tim's suggestion of everyone posting YouTube links for exposing music-hungry folks to new bands.

I offer Pittsburgh's own Modey Lemon. This, their sole video, only hints at the heady mix of fuzz-tone psychedelica/funky groove rock they do.
Crows

This crappy live video has lousy sound but, wow, the kids have energy to spare.
The audio is too lousy for me to figure out what the song is.

Well, I never thought I'd have the kind of time an NC surgeon has to explore this here Internet....but dadgummit...that's what can happen in a hotel room in rural Ohio.

Tim has led you to the Darkness, but that is so last year, as the kids like to say. The current craze is an Aussie band called Wolfmother. Their latest hot tune is in linked in the title. A whole lotta Zep.

As for me, I'm kinda into the Black Keys from Akron, O-Hi-O. The vid is pretty funny stuff. Plus the tune rocks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dZjQohOobM

They have a new LP out now, but the reviews have not been kind.

And lest we end there, here's a tune that JoePino has been digging:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MHBIoGh6Og

Gotta love those Flaming Lips!

Time for me to head over the Washington Court House, O-Hi-O and entice more kids to come to WVU!

I had one minute before moving fatigue set in...

Nothing has been posted on the blog in about two hours and Jeff is worried.

I just realized that The Darkness probably ripped off the seminal rock ablum of all time. No, not Sgt Pepper, silly, Glass Planet's "Satan's Pedicure"

Welcome To Tabishland!
Welcome to Tabishland - sort of like Disneyland but everything is painted brown and the only rides aren't fun: they're rewarding. This will be a group blog eventually and as soon as I figure blogging out, we can probably move the so-called "Kim Contrucci alter" here (hey, for the record I wasn't the only person who crushed on Kim - Ian, Chip, Eric, Gene, Francis, John, Scotty, Kevin- and I can only guess at the pre-1979 folks but I have some hunches). First on the agenda is making this a group blog. Back in a few.

# posted by Joe @ 11:07 AM 3 comments

Muffin-Sugarpie, it's the 104th day anniversary of our first blog date, didyouremember??? Cna we go to Poli's in Pixburgh to celebrate?

I found this all over Amazon (not to mention Mozilla and Limewire, etc..)

Anyone want to guess as the song list on the album?

Ginger, I just noticed in the comic you created that you feature Kim, her guitar and The Rock. So I'm also including the SOM review (remember you can point and click on it to blow it up) in which Kim took a bullet for you, to help inspire your next series of strips. Which I'm hoping will be built around The Rock...

I've enjoyed perusing EH's musings, so here's the link Joe found. (Joe, btw, is much more web-saavy than we realized, so be careful.) And yes, I probably should be doing other things.

I thought the rehearsal/production photos of A Thurber Whiteface Mime Minstrel Show were interesting. You can see from the rehearsal shot that I'm not acting, I'm SCHMACTING. Given that slab of adolescent face, it was good to use a nappy 'stache in TIOBE to breakup its endless Illinois highway-like flatness. Kim's wearing her Nancy Sinatra boots again.

An important day in SendracIAN history

Kim, do you recognize this from Wick Plaza on Rt. 1?

My dad attended Jeff's memorial service on Saturday. Here's part of an e-mail message he sent about it yesterday: "Yesterday morning I attended a memorial service for Jeff Davis. Over fifty people were there, many were friends of Jeff’s father, Jack, a retired IUP English professor, but others were teachers from the Winchester Thurston School in Pittsburgh, where Jeff taught for eight years. Several persons spoke about their memories of Jeff, including two of his former teaching colleagues. They described him as a demanding yet very popular teacher of creative writing who brought a dramatic flair to the classroom and had a lasting impact on his students. Jeff’s father spoke to the group of Jeff’s brilliant but troubled life, that spiraled downward after the tragic death of his mother nine years ago in an automobile accident. Jack said that Jeff had been seriously ill for the last several years, and, that recently Jeff had talked to him at length about his past successes in teaching, in creative writing, and in the theater, particularly in acting in Indiana High and Theater-in- the Grove productions. A highlight for Jeff was Equus, in which he had the lead. Jack recalled the Equus performance when the bleachers collapsed as the audience rose to give the cast a standing ovation."

For anyone that gets tired of cartooning, model railroading, REO or packing, slide over to our map-obsessed friends and wander around their "mashups".

If you can't tell the players without a score card, this episode is for you to print out or bookmark. Not everyone in Tabishland has been seen in the first 6 episodes, so don't fret if you're not represented yet. You will be. Unless I get fired for doing this and not teaching my classes.

The revenge of Eric. I'm going to get absolutely no work done today.

.... You were supposed to stop me....

Please stop me before I kill again.

here's another one

Wherein the characters are defined.

I'm the white Aaron McGruder.

Still bogged down by OAFAT (obligatory anesthesia f--- around time) before a case, so I JUST HAD TO run all the letters of tallahasseelittletheatre thru an anagram generator. "lethal rattle teleaesthesia' seems promising.

Perhaps it's God's way saying: kill the ethernet stuff you do. So I'll stop for awhile and share the sandbox.

I'm all for branching out into other forms of communication.

As I wait on pins and needles for Joe and Ian to Photoshop some magnum opus to celebrate me, I thought I'd redirect my attentions and pitch Kim's band's CD. But I can't find THEIR website. I did find these guys posing (both senses of the word) by "the other brick wall": the RR tracks.

I think I once saw them do their REO Speedwagon tribute show: "Firetruck" Starts With "F" and Ends with "CK", Too

Had to go new-cue-ler. W approved it. Sorry about Champaign.

Evil Joe twin is enlarging. Destroy all crotcheless jean-chaps in your closets. Jeff, for god's, sake tune your piano, don't tunafish. The harmonic of the Universe is at stake here. Whoa, folks, please concentrate.

Am...titrating Joe...against his Evil Twin....(careful, Tim...don't spill)...in order...to prevent matter and....antimatter annihilation...am worried Champaign may be...in jeopardy...if not done correctly...stand by....