Benjamin Barlow

And in spite of the optimistic weather from two weeks ago, it has remained fairly cold and snowy. It even snowed two days ago! Alas, spring has yet to be sprung. It will tempt us again this weekend, where the forecast says a high of 60F, but soon thereafter it dips around freezing for another week.

So what have I been up to these last couple of weeks? Websites and Open Mics. Rehearsals and Badger Tourney reversals. A NEW DOG! Definitely enough to post about, that is for sure.

On a whim, I contacted The Bartell Theatre about something I read on their site. They were looking into other options for their not so attractive and not so functional site to which I thought this looked like an excellent opportunity! How many other ways can I combine two things that are fun to do? So the last two Tuesdays I hopped on over to the theatre to talk web stuff with the only Bartell employee, Steve Vig. A fascinating guy in many great ways. So he tossed me his ideas, I got some things going and I feel like the end will result will be something I am proud to hang my hat on. I had originally anticipated coming up with few different designs, but my first header concept is a hit and the homepage concept is all but decided. Now I just have to build it :)

I ran into an old old friend from my early High School band camp times about a month ago and we’ve been making Open Mic a regular weekly occurrence. Even though she briefly went to UW-P and lived fairly close by, we essentially never were in contact since High School, for many reasons. Now, she is an accomplished musician with many many years of studying music theory and legit performance so Open Mics are right up her alley. Of course she is one of the highlights of the evening with her soulful voice and creative tunes. I just dabble in the stuff. I find Open Mics to be an awesome social experience. Music, friends, great drinks, atmosphere, etc… It is hard to beat. Some of my greatest memories with friends are over drinks and local music.

This is the season of rehearsals and I am loving it. It has been quite a long time since I have looked forward to rehearsals for performance reasons. Although Philadelphia hasn’t officially started, we did get together and to go through it a few times. It was a very educational experience to get some inside info from an experience Madison actor. Sure Thing rehearsals are proving to be a treat. Kenzie (the costar) has provided some excellent opportunities for us to play with our characters and I am a fan of just about everything she’s brought to the table. Lee (the director) is an absolute treat to perform for. Some of the interpretations he has offered for many little pieces of the show are highly valuable insights that fantastic directors provide. Again, this sure beats many of the post-college performance experiences where people, places, and opportunities have been sub-par. Laura, Nick and Aidan being the strong exceptions.

SWEET 16! As a Wisconsinite living in Madison, I am as die-hard of a Badger fan as they come. So needless to say, when the Badgers played the Ducks in a helluva “third” round game last weekend, I nearly had 20 heart attacks. Keene was in town so it was a great opportunity to get out and enjoy his and other’s company during a thrilling game. Now they do play again tonight, so I’ll be sure to try and do everything I did last Saturday to help those Badgers win! :)

I haven’t written about it, but the last few months have been very much about helping Amber find a dog to welcome into the family. Last week she adopted Penny, a short-haired pointer mix. She has been an absolute treat of a dog. Cuddly, excited, well behaved, etc. It will be only a matter of time before I get some Penny Portraits on here. As beautiful of a dog she is, I am sure I will have trouble deciding which ones I like best.

Finally, I did some minor tweaks to the site. I took out Lists from my navigation. It was a great idea, but I need to devote more time and energy to filling that out than I am willing to do right now. I am optimistic that it will return in due time. I added a FAQ page to give a brief area for the “about” information. The Photography page is done! The navigation has been slightly tweaked to provide a wider bar for a full nav list on the medium screens. I had originally kept the nav bar the same width of the content column, but the functionality was a deterrent enough to explore changes. The current implementation is a compromise that I am very comfortable making. The small screens are still out of luck with an abbreviated list.