Nervousness

It's a strange beast. It can go away for a few seconds, but it's always there in the pit of your stomach. Finding a justification to feel or not feel that way doesn't take it all away.

It's an audition I have tonight for Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a workshop play being produced at the University of Arizona. Though I have only spoke the words of Shakespeare on two separate occasions (both monologues), that doesn't help with the nervousness expected during an audition. I'm fully confident that I know the words and have some (barely justifiable) blocking, but that nervousness in the pit of my stomach rattles me. Hopefully my new found focus will pull me through the endeavour. That and a bit of support from fellow actors and friends.

I just don't want a huge part in that play. I'd rather be one of the characters from the Shakespeare play than Rosencranz or Guildenstern. If I had more time, then I wouldn't care as much. Things will work out in the end though.

Ironically, I'm not nervous about the auditions for the Media Arts Student Films this Friday. In fact, they'll be a cakewalk compared to tonight. We'll see though.

--D

New Site

I finally registered www.davidvick.com for my acting resume.  Feel free to check it out and swing me an e-mail at david (AT) davidvick.com.

--D

Thoughts on Capoeira

This will be cross-posted among my various internet profiles, so bear with me if this is repeated.

When I first started capoeira, there were many different voices saying many different ways of doing the same thing. It was confusing to people who had just begun, including myself. I was told not to think, but do. In spite of that advice, I thought more about the movements and what they meant, not only in the roda, but to myself as well. Perhaps I thought about it more than my peers, but that is how I have done things and will continue to do with other endeavours. This will, ideally, lead to minor realizations as I continue my practice of this art.

As much as it is emphasized in capoeira that training with a group, even if it's a group of only two, is best, there is a part of capoeira that is internal. Capoeira is a martial art and dance, so the personal exploration of each of those categories is very much present in capoeira. In fact, it is almost essential to the nature of the jogo.

Many times, from the time I began training to the writing of these words, I have seen students go from group to group, teacher to teacher. This is understandable for those that are just beginning. Schools have varying personalities. With students who have trained for longer periods, though, it is confusing. While one teacher demonstrates a movement in one fashion, another could show the same move explained differently. In the meantime, you're forced to adapt to their teaching style and their explanations, potentially hindering training beyond the classes or workshops.

A great student reaches beyond the boundaries established by the instructor to develop their vocabulary in capoeira while always having that "home" to return to if one gets lost. Going from teacher to teacher training for long periods of time is like moving from one country to another, but still thinking you're in the first country. How can you explore what's beyond the borders if the borders keep moving?

Any one, capoeirista or not, can learn the movements. To not think about where and when they can be used is to walk blindly into a roda, confused as to their significance to everyone and yourself. Of course, a student can learn and become a great capoeirista alone, but without guidance, knowledge, and-above all-respect, progress will become slow or stagnant.

It is only now, after three to four years of practice as of writing this, that I have grown a taste for discovery beyond what I have been taught. My boundaries and base are solidified and my will to push forward is increasing exponentially. My passion for the game is growing; my thirst for expression must be satisfied. This would not have been possible were it not for Capoeira Mandinga.

I owe a great deal to this group that I want to thrive because everyone on my path through this maze of movement and music has given me something that I will treasure. I owe it to Mestre Marcelo and Luar do Sertao for having a family that I can feel at home with, even when far away from my own. More importantly, I find the will and strength to do what I do not just for my instructor, or my mestre, or even the group. I do it for Capoeira in its entirety, and that gives me hope.

--Feiticeiro

Living Room Rock Gods

Great website full of covers by guys and gals who take playing seriously.

http://lrrgs.blogspot.com

--David

Late night update

After finishing the first part of the book Taylor and I are writing, it seems that an update to the blog is in order.

Summer is just about halfway finished here. My broken wrist is starting to get back to normal, yet it still remains fairly skinny. Normal functions should arrive soon enough. Even with the two new jobs that I picked up, one on campus and one at the Parks and Recreation department, I find myself having quite a bit of extra time for things like writing, gaming, and training capoeira. And of course, the radio show that Taylor and I do weekly.

shameless plug: www.themtironstagshow.com

I find my absence from theater and film for such a long period of time to be unsettling. There is a theater no more than five blocks away from my place, yet I haven't made an attempt to audition there. Perhaps I should, it's been such a long time since I've acted.

With the added responsibility I have grown to accept and respect in capoeira, I feel that I have matured just a little bit. Even if it is just a bit of maturity, it is something worth noting. Considering the behavior that I have chosen to take on a near constant basis, it's quite remarkable.

Well, that's all for now. Perhaps I should start working on my personal website a bit more. If I'm going to whore myself out there, I gotta make it look good, you know?


--David

A New Venture

A friend and I have decided to write a book. Chapter by chapter, we will write on and off about whatever comes to mind when I write the first chapter. It could be a fictional narrative, a self-help book, whatever! It will be a book however, that will definitely have a style of its own. Length and content is at this time undefined, but the story should be done by the end of this summer.

Mark my words: I will make it into the press!


--David

The color yellow, wacky sounds, and the kids

Are all right. My new belt in capoeira fits and looks nice. It's added motivation to keep learning/teaching and pushing myself and my concentration as far as it can go. That teaching job at the Parks and Recreation Department is a great opportunity to be able to teach and refine what I already know to new/some experienced students.

The radio show Taylor and I started back in Fall of '05 started back up again also. Check it out at www.themtironstagshow.com. We teamed up with these guys who run Flamegoat TV on Justin.tv, so we're moving on up and such. Fair warning, the shows are definitely NWS and not for the faint of heart.

The new pics of my nephew are pretty awesome. The guy's growing pretty well, and hopefully I get to see him again sometime later this summer.

That's it for now. Stay tuned!

--David

Afternoon Meditations

This was written Saturday afternoon during what I hope to be many more meditations. The Indian Art Fair was taking place nearby.

Concentrate on your breathing and things become secondary, even distant in nature.

A cool breeze, almost chilly, blows from North to South. I breath and I acknowledge its properties, becoming almost calculating in behavior. It isn't felt, but its feelings are recognized.

Concentrate on your breathing and trains of thought pass by the station.

I'm walking a dog along a path. Soon an onslaught of potential possibilities invade that path like foul beasts ready to disrupt. I focus on the path ahead, and they disappear into the gloom.

This is possibility and outcome, a mindset of worry and dread and anticipation for what may or may not happen. This is the mindset that plagues me constantly. It must be controlled.

Drum beats of a percussionist sound in the distance. Cars pass; birds sing; people laugh, chat, and cough. The breeze is back again. It chills my spine, feeding goosebumps their essentials to grow.

I must move into the sun and embrace the warmth. My mind is calmed for now.

--David

Pardon

Meetings, auditions, scheduling, plays, films, etc.... these are the things that distract me from proper entries for this blog. Or actual entries at all. The events have not died down quite yet, but there is enough time to submit a much needed update on all the goings-on.

The last calendar year of my tenure at the University has begun already. Only a couple of classes stand in my way, classes that can easily be handled, allowing me to graduate from this place. With potential T.A. positions lined up in the next few months, it will be a while before I truly leave this campus. Not that I have any particular attachment to the University and do not want to leave, far from it. I just enjoy it here and until I save enough money up to take the Seattle Stuntman training course, I'll have to make do with what I have.

And what is it that I have? A growing family with my nephew's birth a month ago; a second family of sorts with the Capoeira Mandinga club that continues to grow and grow, hopefully leading to an academy; a new sense of purpose for what I want to do in life: become a stuntman. All of these fill me with a hope that whatever burdens or responsibilities I have, that it'll be just fine since I will grow and grow physically, emotionally, and morally.

Large events loom over the horizon for moi. The Batizado planning is in full swing for late April, and with the people in our group doing the absolute best job they could do, my excitement about it continues to grow. That same month is, if luck holds out on me, the One Act festival of plays. It will be exciting to be cast in one, but not upsetting if I don't. April's already a busy month with the Batizado. Two animated films with my voice work are to be shown at the Loft in May as well. I have not seen a single frame of either, so the completed products will be a sight to behold.

The next highway exit will be for Spring Workshop Ave., location of Martin McDonaugh's The Pillowman. Such a dark, dark comedy...

Ate logo for now,

--David