Every Day is Jell-O Art Day Now

 I wish I were being more productive toward this year's show because my anxiety is mounting and work is the antidote to that...but yesterday I sat in the sun for so many hours because it was one of my last free Saturdays before the market season starts up. And you know, that show on March 28th. The sun was way too seductive to resist.

Our script is almost in its final version, though we keep thinking of ways to make it tighter and more nuanced which we always do right up until the last minute, though we know that is a vexing habit that makes us less polished in the end. But with how fast the world has been changing, we want to stay current and we don't always know that what we are doing is not going to play well so we sometimes have to drop things that will sound insensitive. We can be that flexible but this year we are especially trying to get it together better as last year was a circus with too many clowns and we can do better. 

But as far as props go, that's a part I love so I've been literally picking off the low-hanging fruit by making a bunch of fake food for one scene. And working on the campfire. It's kind of working, though I have many more plans for it and I found some optical fibers yesterday I may try to fix up to add some interest. I'm told to keep it simple every year but that is just not how I operate, so I try, but I layer things up when no one is looking. Then I am reluctant to ask other people to handle props so I make myself in charge of way too much. But every year is an adventure. 

Jell-O Art in progress is next to impossible to photograph in any coherent way but I do like to document my progress and I think the fire is coming along pretty well. 

It's got gold in the flames so ought to look pretty good when I get it all glued up. It wasn't that hard to get it to this stage but there is a lot more to the concept I am struggling to even attempt. But I will do it!

Meanwhile the fake food is pretty fun so I'm roaring along with that, which I can do in the evenings out of scrap materials and some felt I bought because it was there. I'm sewing and glueing and plant to bag up lunches. Come and get it!

 I know these are kind of crude, and the limes look more like really bad pickles but the carrots are great! I like the pizza galettes too, and the apples or tomatoes will do the job even though it's not apparent which one they are. The baloney sandwich was the most time-consuming but I do think we will need baloney sandwiches so I'll attempt more. I don't guess I'll make potatoes for everyone...

I can't tell you how these fit into the narrative but you'll find out when you see the show. One of the most fun parts of our performances is that we start in January (December this year) and brainstorm repeatedly, just choosing songs we want to learn that are sometimes only tangentially related to where we think we're going, and over the ensuing months we somehow make it into a molded salad that works. We have some uncanny way of channeling the zeitgeist in good years though we have to resist a lot. But articles keep appearing in the newspaper that just feed right into what we're doing. IYKYK. Sorry I can't say more.

We're not going to use the Kristi Noem is a bird-legged ho chant, not because she should be let of the hook, but because it is sexist and body-shaming and just a bit too overt. And we don't want her in our show. We put those demons in our show last year and it was fun, but we're over it. Although it will be No Kings Day, so we hope we get some political art. 

Working on the shirt design too. Kind of need to print those this week if I can...I can! I just have to quit sitting in the sun of an afternoon, reading novels. At least if I'm going to be outside I need to be practicing the songs.