#1 First Post

Listening to: Don't Look Back in Anger by Oasis

Dear Hal,

I'm starting out this blog as a similar blog to that I had in high school. I am hoping that this blog will not catch on quite like the last one though. My last blog was basically an online diary (similar to what this is) that was discovered by many of my classmates. I wasn't the most popular kid then, so I feared that this would lead to some embarrassing moments. Fortunately, it was a quite a positive thing for my classmates to read it. It became a kind of positive commentary on a typical life in my high school and was quite entertaining to read (from what I have been told). There were a few foul ups however. I went out to toilet paper a friends house for the first time and when I got back I mentioned it in my blog without naming whose house we tp'ed and who it was that did the tp'ing. The next day those who did the tp'ing gave me a lot of crap because it would be pretty easy to know whose house it was and who was in the party.

So what am I doing these days? I'm currently looking for a job so I have been picking up applications, filling 'em out and returning them for most of the day. In the evenings I have rehearsal. I'm a member of the Heartland Festival which is a "professional" summer stock festival. Now I know everyone around here tells me it's professional, I just can't think of it as professional theater. When I think professional theater, I think Broadway, Chicago, Guthrie and national tours. I don't consider myself a professional so why should any show I'm in be considered professional? Don't get me wrong, I believe the shows the Heartland Festival puts on are amazing, but the professional shows I've seen are a step up from amazing (and that's including shows I've seen in Madison, Minneapolis, and national tours). Theater is one of those things I absolutely love doing, but I don't believe I have the capability to be amazing at.

I have an opportunity to do another show in Dubuque coming up in mid-August. I receive messages for audition and theater opportunities in Dubuque and I got one saying that there is a production of One Acts that is dire need of male actors of any age. With that, I emailed them and said I was interested but I do have many conflicts. If they are willing to work around my conflicts, I would be glad to participate. I just got done directing a One Act in UWP's One Act Festival so I know that when it comes to theater, One Acts are pretty low pressure. With that said, I would like to think it would be a pretty simple task to be able to do Heartland and the One Acts.

A while back I went on a trip to Chicago for Fathers Day (which I'll probably explain more when I have more time) and I wrote some lyrics. Here they are...

Traveling down I-90, the dial far from empty,
I'm traveling far from home,
Speeds approaching 80, just to see my baby,
Soon I'm not going to be alone,


Anyway... with that I'll leave a quote from my original blog on how my blog got the name Hal.

" yeah. I wrote alot, but hey it shouldn't be this long from now on. o well. talk wit you late, o yeah, I should probably name this something shouldn't I, Gilbert?, I think thats taken... hmm..... how bout Hal? I like that, Hal. not quite Al, and its something of humor... HA, I like it, what do you think Hal? anyway I better go "

Until Next Time,

Ben Barlow