Hey guys. Baby's first time in print (parts 1 and 2)
PRE-WRITE UP (is that the term?) for BOOMTOWN:
http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/blog-5396-after-the-boomers-a-sketch-exploration.html
REVIEW FOR BOOMTOWN:
http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/blog-5598-nicholas-cialdinis-boomtown.html
Pretty glowing, I think. I'm pleased with both.
7.18.2010
5.27.2010
Shameless Self-Promotion Pt 85?
(Photo by Oliver Wolfe)
NEW SHOW.
Global financial collapse. Environmental havoc. American Politics. It doesn't sound funny but the Baby Boomers left quite a legacy... and a lot of material. We may not undo the damage but we can finally start to laugh at it. Milwaukee natives and Second City writers Nicholas Cialdini and Kristina Felske take on this generation of fools with song and sketch.
Boomtown: The Baby Boomer's Guide to Squandering a Century, July 15th and 22nd 9PM $10
CAST:
Dylan Bolin
Grant Collins
Kristina Felske
Tim Higgins
Cynthia Kmak
Sharon Nieman-Koebert
BUY TICKETS HERE: http://www.alchemisttheatre.com/index.cfm?fuse=viewShow&showId=121
5.26.2010
LOST
So, LOST, right guys? What a bummer that was. Personally, I gave up on the idea of the island as purgatory when the WRITERS said it wouldn't happen during the 2nd season. AND when Kenan Thompson told Dr. Jack about his theory on "SNL." And he said absolutely not.
I don't want to say it was time waster, because let's face it, I'm still getting the numbers tattooed on my inner lip. And I still think the overall show was great. But it sucks when your mom asks how the finale was, and instead of just replying "drunk" (which would have been entirely applicable), you have to say "ehhh...welll...."
Anything that requires disclaimers is officially bad news.
5.14.2010
to whom it may concern:
Here is the letter I wrote about my time in the Amazon to SAS. I think it's pretty self-explanatory from there. ALSO! The first day we hung around Old Town and managed to not get mugged and drink sangria, then the other two days were spent drinking on a gorgeous beach (to forget the horrors of the Amazon trip).
"I have never written a letter like this before, so I am unsure how to start. I returned from my “Amazon Riverboat Adventure” trip today at 11 am, and to put it lightly, I was severely disappointed. I was placed in group D (SAL33), a group that did not exist when the original field program was completed; naturally I was ecstatic as I could only afford one big SAS-run trip. However, whenever I tried to find out when my trip was leaving from the field office, no one could ever tell me the time. They always said it would probably leave on the 22nd of April sometime in the morning. As you know, we ended up leaving at 2:30 pm, after every other group (including group E), and lost an entire day. The other groups saw the Victoria Regia water lilies, watched their guides catch alligators with their hands, and spent extra time hiking through the rainforest. My group did not get to do any of these things that were promised to us. This pretty much set the tone for the rest of my trip.
I only budgeted $25 for Brazil, as I thought I would be in the Amazon for three full days – all expenses paid. I did not realize that I would be spending an extra day and half in Salvador before leaving for my trip, as well as returning for another half day on the last day in port. Not only did I have to spend well past my budget while in port (only on food and cab rides, no souvenirs whatsoever), but I found it absolutely ridiculous that I paid approximately $1,300-some dollars on a trip where sodas and other beverages cost extra, where food was not given out during our nine hours of travel on the first day OR our twelve hours the last day, and where I was allotted only two very small bottles of water a day while on the boat. Given, one could refill the bottles, but not when the boat disappeared for five hours. Quite frankly, I could hardly afford the Amazon trip in the first place, and then to spend more money on little things in port…well, they add up.
I think it is also important to add that I got very, very sick the second night of the trip. Because we were only given two bottles of water, those are what we carried with us to visit Acajatuba and play a soccer game against locals. Although the soccer game was a fun activity, I had to buy an extra bottle of water in town because I had already drunk my two bottles. After waiting another hour or so for the canoes to take us back to our houseboats, we all piled in and sat for two slow hours as our guides tried to find the boats. We were not warned that the trip would be long, so many people had to go to the bathroom very badly, were hungry (as it was far past the designated dinner time), and were very thirsty. Over the course of these two hours, my head started throbbing worse than any headache I had ever had before. By the time we got back to the houseboat, I was throwing up violently. I tried to drink more water and eat some rice for dinner, but kept throwing everything up (five times total over the course of the evening). Luckily, our chaperone Maggie was an incredible help, called Dr Mort, and I turned out okay. However, because of this heat exhaustion coupled with total dehydration, I was not able to go piranha fishing or to another village the next morning. My “third” day consisted of sleeping in my hammock while waiting for everyone to return, reading in my hammock while making the approximately four hour trek to the meeting of the waters, and then playing cards while we went back to where the party would be held that evening.
The planning of the entire trip was unbelievably inefficient. We spent four hours driving to the meeting of the waters, only to put our feet into the actual Amazon River for just enough time to take a picture, then immediately drove back to the night’s party. I had expected an action-packed “adventure,” not naptime on a houseboat. Everyone on my trip was upset that we only had one hike in the Amazon rainforest – only three hours the very first day. All of us had signed up for an adventurous and exciting look at the rainforest, but instead we had to “avoid the bugs” and spent little to no time actually exploring. Also, while on this hike, it was impossible to hear either guide unless you were standing right next to them; all twenty people in the middle of the group couldn’t hear anything they were saying. Plus, we made absolutely terrible time on our hike – we stopped every two minutes for five to ten minutes at a time, sometimes without the guides giving us any information.
However, my biggest complaint I have with the entire trip was the fact that we spent an entire day of our supposed 3-days, 2-nights journey on a plane. Our original flight was cancelled, and we were quickly put on another one heading to Brasilia. This showed me how easy it would have been to book another flight that morning. My entire group was very upset by this and were surprised that SAS would not spring for a 5am flight instead of a 2:30pm one. All of us would much rather spend a half-day in the Amazon than sleeping on the ship. Additionally, even if we did have to go at the 2:30 pm time slot, we should have at least been able to stay a third night and part of the next day. There is absolutely no conceivable reason why all of the groups had to leave on midnight flights, experience two-hour layovers at 4am, and not even get back to the ship until 11am. We could have easily spent the night and gotten back to the ship at 6pm for on-ship time. I believe that this horrible travel plan is the reason why so many people were throwing up on the flights home – we simply did not get enough sleep.
To sum up, I am absolutely disgusted that I spent $1,300-some dollars on a trip to the Amazon when I feel like I didn’t have any time to actually see the Amazon. Considering my group lost an entire day, and we were supposed to have four days (including one for travel), I think it would be more than appropriate to return 25% of the trip’s cost to myself and my companions. I could have done the same exact trip more efficiently and at about half the cost. The worst part is that I lost three days in Brazil that I can never get back.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope to hear from you soon."
"I have never written a letter like this before, so I am unsure how to start. I returned from my “Amazon Riverboat Adventure” trip today at 11 am, and to put it lightly, I was severely disappointed. I was placed in group D (SAL33), a group that did not exist when the original field program was completed; naturally I was ecstatic as I could only afford one big SAS-run trip. However, whenever I tried to find out when my trip was leaving from the field office, no one could ever tell me the time. They always said it would probably leave on the 22nd of April sometime in the morning. As you know, we ended up leaving at 2:30 pm, after every other group (including group E), and lost an entire day. The other groups saw the Victoria Regia water lilies, watched their guides catch alligators with their hands, and spent extra time hiking through the rainforest. My group did not get to do any of these things that were promised to us. This pretty much set the tone for the rest of my trip.
I only budgeted $25 for Brazil, as I thought I would be in the Amazon for three full days – all expenses paid. I did not realize that I would be spending an extra day and half in Salvador before leaving for my trip, as well as returning for another half day on the last day in port. Not only did I have to spend well past my budget while in port (only on food and cab rides, no souvenirs whatsoever), but I found it absolutely ridiculous that I paid approximately $1,300-some dollars on a trip where sodas and other beverages cost extra, where food was not given out during our nine hours of travel on the first day OR our twelve hours the last day, and where I was allotted only two very small bottles of water a day while on the boat. Given, one could refill the bottles, but not when the boat disappeared for five hours. Quite frankly, I could hardly afford the Amazon trip in the first place, and then to spend more money on little things in port…well, they add up.
I think it is also important to add that I got very, very sick the second night of the trip. Because we were only given two bottles of water, those are what we carried with us to visit Acajatuba and play a soccer game against locals. Although the soccer game was a fun activity, I had to buy an extra bottle of water in town because I had already drunk my two bottles. After waiting another hour or so for the canoes to take us back to our houseboats, we all piled in and sat for two slow hours as our guides tried to find the boats. We were not warned that the trip would be long, so many people had to go to the bathroom very badly, were hungry (as it was far past the designated dinner time), and were very thirsty. Over the course of these two hours, my head started throbbing worse than any headache I had ever had before. By the time we got back to the houseboat, I was throwing up violently. I tried to drink more water and eat some rice for dinner, but kept throwing everything up (five times total over the course of the evening). Luckily, our chaperone Maggie was an incredible help, called Dr Mort, and I turned out okay. However, because of this heat exhaustion coupled with total dehydration, I was not able to go piranha fishing or to another village the next morning. My “third” day consisted of sleeping in my hammock while waiting for everyone to return, reading in my hammock while making the approximately four hour trek to the meeting of the waters, and then playing cards while we went back to where the party would be held that evening.
The planning of the entire trip was unbelievably inefficient. We spent four hours driving to the meeting of the waters, only to put our feet into the actual Amazon River for just enough time to take a picture, then immediately drove back to the night’s party. I had expected an action-packed “adventure,” not naptime on a houseboat. Everyone on my trip was upset that we only had one hike in the Amazon rainforest – only three hours the very first day. All of us had signed up for an adventurous and exciting look at the rainforest, but instead we had to “avoid the bugs” and spent little to no time actually exploring. Also, while on this hike, it was impossible to hear either guide unless you were standing right next to them; all twenty people in the middle of the group couldn’t hear anything they were saying. Plus, we made absolutely terrible time on our hike – we stopped every two minutes for five to ten minutes at a time, sometimes without the guides giving us any information.
However, my biggest complaint I have with the entire trip was the fact that we spent an entire day of our supposed 3-days, 2-nights journey on a plane. Our original flight was cancelled, and we were quickly put on another one heading to Brasilia. This showed me how easy it would have been to book another flight that morning. My entire group was very upset by this and were surprised that SAS would not spring for a 5am flight instead of a 2:30pm one. All of us would much rather spend a half-day in the Amazon than sleeping on the ship. Additionally, even if we did have to go at the 2:30 pm time slot, we should have at least been able to stay a third night and part of the next day. There is absolutely no conceivable reason why all of the groups had to leave on midnight flights, experience two-hour layovers at 4am, and not even get back to the ship until 11am. We could have easily spent the night and gotten back to the ship at 6pm for on-ship time. I believe that this horrible travel plan is the reason why so many people were throwing up on the flights home – we simply did not get enough sleep.
To sum up, I am absolutely disgusted that I spent $1,300-some dollars on a trip to the Amazon when I feel like I didn’t have any time to actually see the Amazon. Considering my group lost an entire day, and we were supposed to have four days (including one for travel), I think it would be more than appropriate to return 25% of the trip’s cost to myself and my companions. I could have done the same exact trip more efficiently and at about half the cost. The worst part is that I lost three days in Brazil that I can never get back.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope to hear from you soon."
don't mind your wife chop bar.
Ghana. I have so much to say but don’t really feel like this is the outlet for it. So if we’re good friends, have an hour to kill, and are drinking red wine, we’ll talk about it. I have so many mixed emotions about both South Africa and Ghana (although I loved my time in both places very much), but the more I learned the harder it was to try and sort out my feelings. Let’s just say that I felt far more guilt, made far more friends, and felt far more successful in Ghana than I had in any other place I’ve been. It wasn’t my favorite country, but it was definitely my most successful.
Got off the ship in 95 degree heat. Humid and sticky upon impact. There was a group of ten of us – to make traveling four hours to Cape Coast more affordable. We waited for the SAS shuttle (that they charged us each $10 for…because it takes $6,000 to run a shuttle for four days…ughuhgkjsfjad) and when it didn’t show, a local cop let us ride in the back bed of his truck. This pretty much set the mood for my entire trip. Oh, let me name my comrades – Jordan, Ricardo, Andrew, Amy, Elle, Rachel (brown hair so RBH), Nick, Colette, and Tucker.
So anyway, we get a van to drive us to Cape Coast, stopping for beer, food, and ATMs on the way. Because we docked in Tema, about an hour outside of Accra, we arrived in the “industrial capital of Ghana” – you can imagine what that looked like. Lots of shoes being sold on strings, for one thing. Also lots of goats (a common theme in Ghana) roaming around aimlessly, eating grass and garbage. However, the countryside was beautiful – red earth with sparse trees and low bushes. Hills and small villages along the way, where people on the side of the road waved when we passed. LOTS of religious imagery. When I say a lot, I mean SO MUCH. “God’s Electronic Store,” “Jesus is Best Market,” etc etc. It’s almost superstitious instead of religious – like they were afraid God would smite them if they didn’t put the sign there. Probably 95% of the stores that we saw from Cape Coast til Tema, even in Accra, had something to do with God.
It took us about four hours to drive to our hotel in Cape Coast, a weird little place suggested by tons of guidebooks called Hans Botel. The rooms were very nice and there was a pond where crocodiles swam. It seemed pretty empty, save for Welsh Tim who we will talk about later. We went out for the slowest-moving dinner ever at Castle Restaurant, a place next to the slave dungeons on the beach. Amy attracted a few guys – Richard and Sammy – and they came into the restaurant and hung out for a bit. After dinner, Amy, Colette, Ricardo, Jordan, and Andrew went dancing with them in town, while Elle, Rachel, Tucker, Nick, and I went back to the hotel. We were exhausted…so naturally we drank at the bar with the guy who showed us into the hotel, Kofi. Kofi has been to Illinois before, so we became fast friends and ended up talking for an hour or two. He was awesome, kept referring to America as “Freedom.” Exchanged numbers and I promised to call, but I forgot the next night. Either way, it was amazing. Poor Rachel and Elle got stuck talking to the aforementioned Welsh Tim. He bought their drinks so they felt obligated to listen to him talk about his penchant for local prostitutes. Everyone else came back, we drank a little longer, then went to sleep.
Well, I woke up at 3am and got sick. Whether it was the heat, the chicken curry with jollof rice I got at the restaurant, or something else altogether, I got very very sick. First instance of “sickness” during the trip. It sucked and made me less adventurous with food for the rest of my stay in Ghana. OH, and the toilet was broken, so I had to fix that so no one would be greeted by my vomit in the morning. Disgusting.
ANYWAY, the next morning we had our “included” breakfast of toast and coffee, then split up and headed into town. My group consisted of Tucker, Elle, Amy, Rachel, and Nick. I only wanted to travel with 3 people, tops, so I was a little bummed out, but everyone I was with ruled so it wasn’t such a big deal. ESPECIALLY because Tucker and Amy went off by themselves for awhile and brought us a friend. We’ll get there in a moment however.
It was so hot. We walked through the town, saw children in their school uniforms play soccer, stopped in a few shops, got called “obroni” (white people). I felt horrible, but it was still a nice two hour walk. Finally came to a restaurant run by a big, happy woman named Henrietta. She made us fresh chips (fries) with chicken and a vegetable mix. Delicious delicious. Checked into the Oasis Beach Resort (not a resort – it cost $9 a night, no AC, little cave-like huts with fans too far away to make a difference. Loved it!) and ran into Amy and Tucker, who had met Isaac.
Isaac is far and away one of the best people I have ever met. After putting our stuff down, and leaving Nick behind because he felt sick, Isaac took us for a tour of his town. We saw alleyways that tourists never see, painted pink and filled with children in uniforms coming home from school, pointing at us and saying “obroni!” He translated everything for us, even when the kids asked “what’s up with that little man” about Tucker. He brought us to cheap fabric stores, bargained for us, and into an alley outside of the major town market for some palm wine. We were served out of a bucket in coconut shells. It was one of my favorite moments of the entire trip to be sure. He said he was just trying to make us the happiest people in Ghana, and was surprised when I told him that there are lots of flies in the US (he still didn’t believe me). The most lovely of the lovely.
Walked back to the Oasis, where Martin, Dave, Peyton, Genevieve, Cory, and James are hanging. We decided to stay near the hotel – good call since by midnight we were outnumbered by locals. Learned to drum on the beach with new friend Joe and five other dudes, traded a beaded necklace for a pack of Big Red and Chapstick with John (who wanted something to show his kids from America), and bought Isaac a beer for being a fantastic host. Isaac prayed to his ancestors that Elle would be safe, then left a VM for her mother that he would someday marry her.
The next morning we left Cape Coast after going for a tour of the slave dungeons (by the same guy who did Obama’s tour in Ghana). Horrific, to say the least. Spent the night drinking outside a too-expensive club and learning about the omnipresence of some kind of God from an Islamic guy who I shared the following with:
“I hear the US has been having financial problems, a recession-“
“Yes that’s true.”
“Well…what if the US looked like Ghana? What would they say then?”
Amazing.
Went to Makola Market the next day. Wrote so much. Don’t want to rewrite. I have photos. I’m going to post because learning Led Zeppelin songs on my mandolin is too hard.
Got off the ship in 95 degree heat. Humid and sticky upon impact. There was a group of ten of us – to make traveling four hours to Cape Coast more affordable. We waited for the SAS shuttle (that they charged us each $10 for…because it takes $6,000 to run a shuttle for four days…ughuhgkjsfjad) and when it didn’t show, a local cop let us ride in the back bed of his truck. This pretty much set the mood for my entire trip. Oh, let me name my comrades – Jordan, Ricardo, Andrew, Amy, Elle, Rachel (brown hair so RBH), Nick, Colette, and Tucker.
So anyway, we get a van to drive us to Cape Coast, stopping for beer, food, and ATMs on the way. Because we docked in Tema, about an hour outside of Accra, we arrived in the “industrial capital of Ghana” – you can imagine what that looked like. Lots of shoes being sold on strings, for one thing. Also lots of goats (a common theme in Ghana) roaming around aimlessly, eating grass and garbage. However, the countryside was beautiful – red earth with sparse trees and low bushes. Hills and small villages along the way, where people on the side of the road waved when we passed. LOTS of religious imagery. When I say a lot, I mean SO MUCH. “God’s Electronic Store,” “Jesus is Best Market,” etc etc. It’s almost superstitious instead of religious – like they were afraid God would smite them if they didn’t put the sign there. Probably 95% of the stores that we saw from Cape Coast til Tema, even in Accra, had something to do with God.
It took us about four hours to drive to our hotel in Cape Coast, a weird little place suggested by tons of guidebooks called Hans Botel. The rooms were very nice and there was a pond where crocodiles swam. It seemed pretty empty, save for Welsh Tim who we will talk about later. We went out for the slowest-moving dinner ever at Castle Restaurant, a place next to the slave dungeons on the beach. Amy attracted a few guys – Richard and Sammy – and they came into the restaurant and hung out for a bit. After dinner, Amy, Colette, Ricardo, Jordan, and Andrew went dancing with them in town, while Elle, Rachel, Tucker, Nick, and I went back to the hotel. We were exhausted…so naturally we drank at the bar with the guy who showed us into the hotel, Kofi. Kofi has been to Illinois before, so we became fast friends and ended up talking for an hour or two. He was awesome, kept referring to America as “Freedom.” Exchanged numbers and I promised to call, but I forgot the next night. Either way, it was amazing. Poor Rachel and Elle got stuck talking to the aforementioned Welsh Tim. He bought their drinks so they felt obligated to listen to him talk about his penchant for local prostitutes. Everyone else came back, we drank a little longer, then went to sleep.
Well, I woke up at 3am and got sick. Whether it was the heat, the chicken curry with jollof rice I got at the restaurant, or something else altogether, I got very very sick. First instance of “sickness” during the trip. It sucked and made me less adventurous with food for the rest of my stay in Ghana. OH, and the toilet was broken, so I had to fix that so no one would be greeted by my vomit in the morning. Disgusting.
ANYWAY, the next morning we had our “included” breakfast of toast and coffee, then split up and headed into town. My group consisted of Tucker, Elle, Amy, Rachel, and Nick. I only wanted to travel with 3 people, tops, so I was a little bummed out, but everyone I was with ruled so it wasn’t such a big deal. ESPECIALLY because Tucker and Amy went off by themselves for awhile and brought us a friend. We’ll get there in a moment however.
It was so hot. We walked through the town, saw children in their school uniforms play soccer, stopped in a few shops, got called “obroni” (white people). I felt horrible, but it was still a nice two hour walk. Finally came to a restaurant run by a big, happy woman named Henrietta. She made us fresh chips (fries) with chicken and a vegetable mix. Delicious delicious. Checked into the Oasis Beach Resort (not a resort – it cost $9 a night, no AC, little cave-like huts with fans too far away to make a difference. Loved it!) and ran into Amy and Tucker, who had met Isaac.
Isaac is far and away one of the best people I have ever met. After putting our stuff down, and leaving Nick behind because he felt sick, Isaac took us for a tour of his town. We saw alleyways that tourists never see, painted pink and filled with children in uniforms coming home from school, pointing at us and saying “obroni!” He translated everything for us, even when the kids asked “what’s up with that little man” about Tucker. He brought us to cheap fabric stores, bargained for us, and into an alley outside of the major town market for some palm wine. We were served out of a bucket in coconut shells. It was one of my favorite moments of the entire trip to be sure. He said he was just trying to make us the happiest people in Ghana, and was surprised when I told him that there are lots of flies in the US (he still didn’t believe me). The most lovely of the lovely.
Walked back to the Oasis, where Martin, Dave, Peyton, Genevieve, Cory, and James are hanging. We decided to stay near the hotel – good call since by midnight we were outnumbered by locals. Learned to drum on the beach with new friend Joe and five other dudes, traded a beaded necklace for a pack of Big Red and Chapstick with John (who wanted something to show his kids from America), and bought Isaac a beer for being a fantastic host. Isaac prayed to his ancestors that Elle would be safe, then left a VM for her mother that he would someday marry her.
The next morning we left Cape Coast after going for a tour of the slave dungeons (by the same guy who did Obama’s tour in Ghana). Horrific, to say the least. Spent the night drinking outside a too-expensive club and learning about the omnipresence of some kind of God from an Islamic guy who I shared the following with:
“I hear the US has been having financial problems, a recession-“
“Yes that’s true.”
“Well…what if the US looked like Ghana? What would they say then?”
Amazing.
Went to Makola Market the next day. Wrote so much. Don’t want to rewrite. I have photos. I’m going to post because learning Led Zeppelin songs on my mandolin is too hard.
5.09.2010
4.27.2010
I don't want to post a ghana update.
Because I am tired of blogging. I took copious notes in my journal (I filled an entire one with just Ghana) and Ghana was definitely my most successful and challenging port, but......maybe when I get back and miss SAS. I just have too much to do.
SO HERE ARE SOME PHOTOS:
SO HERE ARE SOME PHOTOS:
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