photos from louisville live!!!

I am in Louisville for the Humana Festival and also in my month of "unlimited" data plan promotion from Cingular. So I thought I'd take pics from my phone and upload them to my Zannel Channel. I haven't figured out how to caption them on the fly, so in the meantime I will have to go in there later and add them in.

Right now there's some pictures of the cars outside a Mary Kay convention.

Coming up, Check out my fried egg sandwich!!

See it here:

http://www.zannel.com/browse.jsp?query=pnachtrieb

louisville, anyone?

To all my Kentucky friends (I don't really know if I have any): I am coming to Louisville for this. I'm very excited. Anyone else going to be there?

The effect of an overcast sky

It's a pissy day in San Fran. Gloomy grey, rain coming through. The rain's fine since "WE NEED IT!" as the weather people tell us. Weatherpeople seem rarely satisfied by the weather. Any condition is cause for concern. If it's going to be stormy, it's dangerous to be out, branches will fall upon us. If it's sunny it's also going to be smoggy, reservoirs will remain low and pollen will wreak havoc. Contrarions. That's what they are.

This winter, the weather people added a new wrench to their toolbox of weather doom: the "Spare The Air" Night. We've had the day version for a long time in summer where people in cars are asked not to drive and take BART instead. The Night version takes place in winter, on particularly cold cold nights. On these freezing icy nights, people are asked not to have fires. Essentially the nights where you really want to have a fire, you can't have one. Apologies to Al Gore and asthmatics, but it's freezing cold and I'm lighting my 2 hour Safeway log for at least an illusion of olden-time warmth and comfort.

What is the point of the above commentary? I'm having writer's block. My head is not feeling terribly clear, the focus is off, the coffee was weak. I'm also in the last third of the play which is always the most difficult, though I am happy to say I finally know how the play will end. I often rationalize writers block by telling myself that I just need more "thinking time." One more day, and enough festering will have taken place. I hope so. I need some decent character event and dialogue to ooze out stat.

I think I sabotaged myself by thinking I could work from home today. I am able to do this occasionally, but if I have even the slightest bit of antsy-tude, it can spell creative disaster (but a click-through windfall for theater blogs, news sites, and porn). Tomorrow, I will leave the house to one of many locations that seem to focus me more and also allow me to eat food while I work.

On the bright side, I got to participate in an amazing, rare, festival of love yesterday. It was most awesome. So, honestly, I should now shut my mouth, stop whining, and get to work.

tv roundup - march

TV has been a mixed bag for me this Spring. This has been enhanced by the fact that our Comcast Digital Cable On Demand has been on the fritz and we have not been able to catch some of the really good stuff on HBO (it just started working again recently)

• Still good - Lost It dipped there for a bit, but the last two episodes have kicked ass. Especially the last one which did the incredible duty of solving a lot of mysteries. Like a lot. And then, at the same time, introducing the idea that there's a magic box where anything can appear on the island. Fu-what?? I am realizing that my new play is a little bit like Lost. Just a little. No magic box or anything, but ideas about faith, reason, and being trapped.
  
• No so good anymore - Survivor - I used to really like this show, and the race season was pretty good. But I am growing tired of weekly challenges involving puzzles, swimming, and people being tethered together. They need to change the shit up.
• Sucking - 24 - It was sooo good last year. It's sooo not good this year. How can a show with twists every 30 seconds be making me bored? What does a show do when nuclear bombs being launched by drones just doesn't really captivate? Or when Jack Bauer cuts off a finger of the Russian Ambassador, it barely registers. Mark and I discussed and I think the major problem is they are missing a good female character. No love interest, no evil manipulator (Oh Sherry Palmer, we miss you), no love interest/evil manipulator (NINA!!!). Even Chloe has little to do except reluctantly help Jack. The other problem is that they are resorting to torture way too much as a dramatic device. C'mon, after 6 years?
  
• Reality TV Best Show of the Moment - The Hills - Lauren has really matured from her LC days. The drama is as thick and compelling as it was in Laguna Beach season 2! Better yet, the guys actually know how to form sentences in this show. Runner Up: I Love New York.
  
• Loving - Rome Season 2 (on episode 3), Arrested Development Season 3 on DVD (Oh wow)

OK. more pop culture thoughts to come soon.

PS. HI MEGHAN AND CAREN!

my first ever blog post from orlando!

I know, you've been waiting a long time for me to blog from Orlando, and it's dream come true time guys!!

This is my first time in Orlando. I'm here for an acting gig that is the same as an acting gig I mentioned before on this blog. The one where I grow a goatee (which I have right now and have a tendency to lick from time to time.) Unfortunately, I don't have a car. Which means that my trip to Orlando is essentially confined to here. Which is actually quite pretty. It sort of reminds me of a casino without a casino. And there's a pretty golf course. Nice pools. And a nature walk into the swamp where I did, indeed, see an alligator. Rather, I heard the alligator jump into the water (from near where I was walking) and then saw her swimming away. SCARY. But fun.

Now, I know there's a lot to do here. "The Parks" as they've been referred to by locals. Everything to do in Orlando appears to have been constructed. And holy crap it's expensive. I'm also by myself. Now, I try going to bars by myself and I have to muster every ounce of energy to stay in the place and act cool. (The drink goes down very fast). I'm not sure if I can do a theme park by myself. Walking around would be OK. But, I think waiting in line would be incredibly awkward. Even if it is perfectly acceptable for grown men to go stag to family oriented destinations, I still feel like I would look suspicious. Did I mention I have a goatee right now? Beyond the social awkwardness, I think experiences like that also make me feel awfully, painfully alone.

So I think this trip to Orlando will honestly start at end at the hotel. It's fine though. I wrote 8 pages of my play today!!!! Perhaps, for sake of adventure, I'll hop in a cab and at least head to mall.

one year of blogging, a reflection

I've now maintained a blog for a year, posting at least once a week. Ish. I am still dubious of my usefulness to the world through this forum. Is it entertaining? Semi-insightful about generally meaningless things? I just posted a second image of a butternut squash. Is that helpful to anyone?

Now that it is a new year, I have decided to develop a mission statement for the blog. Some blogs are all about politics. I'd link to one but I really don't have time to read those blogs so I honestly wouldn't tell you where to go to find a good one. Many blogs I read are mostly about theatre, and I guess this one is a bit, though I have consciously decided not to really evaluate too deeply anything theatrical mostly because there are many others out there more capable than I to be critical. I have intellectual insecurities when it comes to dramatic criticism that run deep to being shamed in English classes at Brown.

Many other blogs are about Hollywood gossip and using MacPaint to write captions over celebrity photos. My pop culture appetite is healthy, but it hovers around the interest level of being an Entertainment Weekly subscriber, as opposed to an Us Weekly subscriber (though I must confess to a strange bewilderment and satisfaction to reading the "Stars! They're Just Like Us!" section of Us. ).

What shall I, peternachtrieb.blogspot.com contribute to the world? What is my mission (aside from self-promotion which really goes without saying)? Seriously, what are the hands I am shaping with these words and how can I use them to finger the people?

Behold, the mission statement:
To provide 5-30 seconds of mild escape from whatever it is a reader should really be doing.

the new butternut squash image

oh the butternut squash image got pulled off the web

I had a nice butternut squash picture to accompany the previous post, which has apparently angered someone and they have removed it from the web. I must now replace it.

We have 5 butternut squash sitting in our kitchen

One of the results of being part of a CSA (community supported agriculture) and sometimes not having enough time to cook. Recipes are welcome, or if you'd like one, let me know.

the end of february recap

been a while. here's what happened.

• I went to Providence. Rhode Island. It's been a while since I'd been and was fun to see the ol grounds where I matured as an adult. What's changed in 10 years:
  
  • There's a big mall.
  • The Shaws is now a Whole Foods
  • The students are much much younger than when I went there.
  • Ocean Coffee Roasters is now a Thai restaurant. BOOOOOOO!
  
  What hasn't changed in 10 years
  
  • It still gets ridiculously cold in February.
  • The Blue Room cookies are still pretty good.
  • There was still a community forum scheduled for people offended by something.
• I caught a production of Our Town in Providence. It was the first time I'd ever seen a production of the play. Holy crap. What an amazing play. Waterworks!! My god! I love it when a play does that.
  
• I went to New York City. I saw this musical and it was pretty damn awesome. Go see it. I also took the subway a bunch, ate lots of diner food, and walked in solo to a bar that happened to be holding an amateur strip competition. I drank a Miller Lite, got very self conscious and left. No matter how hard I try to go to bars on my own (you know, to feel like I can be independent and stuff), I always feel like a dip.
• I missed the beginning of the Oscars, but caught most of it. Shadow dancing into tableau's? What brainstorming session did that emerge out of? And, I'm done with Jennifer Hudson acceptance speeches for a while. And it's sad to see Entertainment Weekly have to focus on other things for a while.