Peanut Brittle.
I did leave the house today, I promise. More than once, even.
Yesterday, I:
Found the ATM (in the middle of nowhere), found the library (closed for Labor Day weekend), and had dinner with my friend Talleri (have I mentioned how much I love Tex-Mex food? Because I do. A lot. Mmmmm).
Then last night I volunteered at the Out of Bounds Improv Festival. I got to take tickets. Thrilling. But I did meet a bunch of new people, impressed them with my smooth personality and suave manner (ok maybe not), and saw some improv. Saw ColdTowne, awesome as always, and Kape, an all-female troupe out of NYC. I like to see all-female troupes. Girls can be funny together in a different way. After the shows, I went out with some ColdTowne people and other Austin folk, at a bar I had been to when I was in town last. Apparently, nothing has changed since I was here in June.
After hanging out with improv peeps, I ended up at a party down the street with my roommate and a bunch of other UT people.
Apparently I party like a rockstar in Austin.
TODAY, I:
Had lunch at Central Market (which is like Metro Mart times 10), then I went to the Gap in search of work pants. No luck on the pants, but I did manage to spend far too much money. Damn the Gap.
Then tonight I volunteered at another Out of Bounds show. This weekend (and today in particular) EVERYONE was in downtown Austin. I mean everyone. There was a 10k (The Nike Human Race),* a triatholon, BatFest, Out of Bounds, and I'm sure several other things.
Due to all of these events, ALL OF DOWNTOWN AUSTIN was closed. Not the businesses, restaurants, and venues, just the streets. ALL OF THEM. I was the luckiest girl alive to find a parking spot within a mile of the venue, and I did it by following people to their car.
We held the house for a half an hour because downtown was so ridiculous, and there were still a ton of people who had bought tickets online who didn't make it. Sucks for them.
The shows were good - one fantastic and one decent.
Girls Girls Girls, billed as "Austin's only all-female improv troupe," specializes in improvised musicals. I wanted very badly to love the show.
I did not.
There were some moments of genius, but there were also a lot of moments of less-than-genius. Improvised songs are really hard, I hate doing them, and the thought of doing an entire show terrifies the crap out of me, but I have seen it done so much better than GGG's musical about beauty pageants.
Perhaps I have been spoiled, seeing so many tight, well-performed musicals at Jet City, but this show seemed lacking in so many ways: Plot, for one. It was there, but not well-formed. Also, for a musical show, there was not a lot of songs. There was quite a bit of "speaking rhythmically while music plays," though. Cop-out. If you bill yourselves as a troupe that does improvised musicals, then do a musical. Sing some songs, sing different kinds of songs, don't bore me. I think they needed more structure than "we're going to do a musical based on a suggestion." There are so many kinds of musical, I think they should have picked a theme beforehand.
(They are going to find this someday and hate me. Oh well.)
The second troupe to perform was a troupe from The Groundlings, out of LA. The Groundlings have a great reputation, and for good reason. Yep. It was apparent that most of the improvisors spend a great deal of time onstage.
Sitting in the audience tonight, I realized it must be terrifying to perform for a large group of improvisors. Way scarier than performing for the general public.
Now I'm sitting here, debating putting on my PJs. By last night's standards, it's still early.
*I am absolutely horrified just at the thought of running a 10k. Now add 90 degree weather. These people are out of their minds.
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