bryan bird's blog

my new co-worker

2010-02-10T10:46:00.002-05:00

Sometimes, it's the little things in life that bring us such great joy.

For example, yesterday I bought a space heater on Amazon.com, and it's working its little heart out to keep me warm at work. My boss gets hot easily and walks around in a t-shirt, while the rest of us are bundled up in fleeces. But now I will no longer need to stop every 10 minutes to sit on my hands. (Productivity, anyone?)

Raise a glass, if you will, to my new co-worker, the Lasko 5812!

Incidentally, this means that half of our four employees now use space heaters.

(And I'm pretty sure I get to claim this on my taxes, too, so... that's handy.)

angels we have heard on phones

2009-12-23T00:51:00.004-05:00

I saw an Apple commercial that showed a quick shot of an app for the iPhone called Holiday Bells, which has a major octave scale of handbell sounds that you can play by tapping the screen. (It also has jingle bell sounds that can be activated by shaking the phone.)

I decided to upload a video of myself playing "Angels We Have Heard On High": check it out!

about this Christmas song 4

2009-12-15T00:49:00.005-05:00

I have previously posted demo recordings [1, 2] of piano arrangements I've written of Christmas music, with the caveat that these are ideas and not finished pieces. I've been working on another one, which I have struggled with a bit. I was going to post it yesterday, but wasn't happy with what I considered my "best" take. But giving it a day's rest and listening to it again gave me some new ideas which I then put together tonight before the thought escaped me.

And so now I present, Joy to the World.

Once again I must give credit to my subconscious inspirations for this piece: Jim Brickman, with a little sprinkle of something related to contemporary Broadway.

and I'm still here

2009-12-12T12:13:00.004-05:00

So much has happened in the past two months since my previous blog post. Nothing particularly earth-shattering, but enough to keep me busy (and as I said previously, facebook has stolen most of my blogging motivation).

Since late August I have been playing the organ at Westlake Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) during their search for a new music director. While it was made abundantly and genuinely clear that they love my music, I did not apply for the regular position since I'm still not at a point in my life where I want to be doing that every Sunday. And the past month when I've had shows every weekend and two solid weeks of rehearsals has reminded me exactly why!

However, playing for that church has made me feel much better about my finances after the health insurance fun I had earlier this year and my CAT scan checkup. But also -- and I made sure to tell the congregation this -- it feels great to have my musical talent respected and appreciated. There's a difference between expected, routine applause and genuine, spontaneous applause because people feel so moved. This church absolutely exhibited the latter, and there were more than several Sundays I drove home feeling great because of it.

In November I once again returned to Magnificat High School for their fall show, whereupon I had the opportunity to play my favorite show of all, Ragtime. I absolutely love this score, and it was great to play it with such a good orchestra.

And before that show even closed, I got a call from the music director of Peter Pan at The Beck Center saying their Keyboard 2 player dropped out. So the day after I was done with Ragtime, I was in nightly rehearsals for Peter Pan. As amateur/semi-pro theaters go, Beck pays very well, and it is good to expand my network into yet another venue. Peter Pan plays every weekend in December and the first weekend of January (except Christmas and New Year's), sometimes with two shows on the same day.

It just so happens that today is one of those days. I had my car worked on this morning in Elyria, had a quick breakfast at Jim's Coffeehouse, and am now blogging and attempting to catch up on life in the brief two hours I have at home today. In-between performances I'm rehearsing with a band that plays at the Westlake church and probably grabbing a fast food dinner. Such is the life of a freelance musician. Especially one who's single.

As for my regular job, things are pretty much the same as before, although we moved into another building in Grafton. Despite being a smaller operation, we are actually now in a larger space, for various reasons. I now have an office, rather than a half-room off a hallway, WITH a window. The actual work itself is the same as I've been doing for over six-and-a-half years.

I'm not going to speak at length on the whole health care debate going on in this country, but I will just note that earlier this year I looked into moving to a smaller, cheaper apartment in order to offset my new-found medical expenses. My new health insurance doesn't cover nearly as much as my old plan did. And my "employer" (in quotes because I'm an independent contractor) didn't have to offer me coverage. Frankly I'm amazed they could cover me at all, being independent. I pay the full premium, but at least it's group coverage.

Had it not been for that, I would not have been able to get health insurance, at all. Allow me to put that in bold as well: I would not have been able to get health insurance, at all. As a self-employed cancer survivor, the best deal I could get was Golden Rule through United Healthcare, who wanted me to be in remission five years (it's only been four for me), and even then it would exclude anything related to the cancer. So that CAT scan I had in July would have been a cool $6000 out of my pocket. At that point, looking for a cheaper apartment would have been the least of my worries.

In other words, not only my living conditions but my career options have been dictated by the way the health system works in the United States. Now, as I said, fortunately I was able to get group coverage through the company I'm working for, so I did end up staying in my Strongsville apartment (which I really like), but only because I cut back drastically almost everywhere in my budget. This means I'm spending far less to support The Economy™, which obviously isn't doing so hot right now either. I put Netflix on hold, stopped using Proactiv solution, and I almost never see my friends in their community theatre shows unless I can go on a free preview night. And all of those decisions were related 100% to my increased medical expenses.

Now, it's not all doom and gloom. For sanity's sake, I kept my "roller coaster budget" the same, which is about the only vacation I ever take. I still go to Seekers Coffee House every Saturday for my $5.00 breakfast. I'm still better off than many millions of Americans. And as I said above, being a substitute organist and picking up extra gigs here and there has helped immensely. But I still have my long-term future to think about, and being able to get group health insurance plays a large role in that.

I'm not saying that any of the various bills being bantered about in Congress right now is the best or "right" option. I don't know enough about all the bills to say definitively which plan is better; but frankly, neither do most people who are getting red in the face screaming about socialism and Hitler and whatnot. I dare say most Congresspersons don't know either, and are just coddling their emotional, snap-judgment constituency in the run up to the 2010 midterm elections. In other words, business as usual.

OK, so I guess I did speak at length. :)

annual bbq

2009-10-09T09:06:00.003-04:00

Just a quick post to say I'll be playing piano at the Lorain County Historical Society's annual BBQ tomorrow (Saturday) from 5:00-8:00 p.m. A $30 ticket gets all-you-can-eat ribs and chicken (provided by the awesome Big Dog Catering of Wellington), side dishes, and desserts. Silent auctions, raffles, fun stuff like that. Cash bar if you'd like to buy your pianist a drink in lieu of tips, hint hint.

It takes place at Jack Matia Honda, 823 Leona Street in Elyria, near I-90 and the Turnpike. Call the LCHS office for tickets today: 440-322-3341.

let the voting begin!

2009-09-17T22:30:00.000-04:00

I'm a finalist in a contest to win a scholarship for PlayhouseSquare's Cabaret 101 class. This is a great program that teaches the art of putting on a cabaret act, including developing skills in singing, presentation, creativity, and self-confidence. I know one of the instructors and am very interested in the class, and if I win this contest they will waive the admission fee!

If I don't win, I won't be able take the class, and you all won't get to see me perform a 15-minute set at the Idea Center at PlayhouseSquare this November. :)

Anyway, voting goes until next Thursday (a week from today), so I'd love it if you would all help me out. You don't have to register or anything; just click the link below and scroll to the bottom to vote. Of course you're also welcome to watch all three videos if you really want to make an informed decision. :D

Vote here

Here is a description of the class from the website:

Mondays October 5 - November 23, 2009
Cabaret 101 is an 8-week series of classes designed to teach participants about this exciting music genre. Background and experience are not necessary. In the relaxed and supportive class environment attendees will learn about the art of singing a song in an intimate cabaret setting, discover a new form of self-expression, tap into creativity, and discover new self-confidence. By the end of the session, participants will perform their own 15-minute set. The lessons and skills you learn in Cabaret 101 can build your self confidence as a performer, an actor, a salesperson, a manager, and even a parent. Class size is limited to 8 participants. Appropriate for 21 years of age and older.

the decline of the blog

2009-08-14T12:59:00.017-04:00

I've been on Facebook just over two years now, and in that time most of my friends have joined too. In addition, I've "friended" various acquaintances I've met while doing theatre and through mutual friends. It's nice being able to casually keep in touch with people I would probably otherwise not see or communicate with more than a few times a year, if that. In some cases, thanks to commenting on friends' Facebook status messages I've fostered new friendships that would have otherwise fizzled out had I merely met them once at a party and then rarely saw them in person afterward.

Plus, the nice thing about electronic communication is that it waits for you. You get to it when you get to it, based on your own schedule, instead of leaping out of the chair like a Pavlovian dog at the sound of a ring. If I speak to a friend on the phone, I might have to sit with a phone to my ear for half an hour or more. If we use instant messenger, we can work on other things at the same time, perhaps even talking to other people online. With IM and email, we can carry on discussions of no particular consequence that would be ridiculous to waste time with on a phone call. For more important correspondence, with email there's a written, easily searchable record of it. And I can do it at any time of day -- while I'm thinking about it, before I forget -- whereas a phone call can only politely be placed by 9:30 p.m. at the very latest. This doesn't always mesh well with my theatre schedule.

I know many people don't see it this way and prefer to use the phone -- or, in the more likely scenario, not keep in touch with people at all -- and that's fine too. It's not my thing, but to each his own.

In any case, I generally update my Facebook status at least once a day, and friends will often leave comments; sometimes the back-and-forth banter will result in full-fledged conversations right there for mutual friends to see. It effectively becomes a message board. But one consequence of this is that I feel less compelled to blog now. Most of my blog readers will have already read my thoughts in my Facebook status messages. Hell, with my phone, I update my status every time I ride a new roller coaster!

So what has been happening lately is that I blog once a month, twice at best, and there's too much territory to cover in a single post. For example, I just noticed that in July, I neglected to mention the weekend I spent by myself at the cottage. This included stopping at Cedar Point on the way there to kill some time on a pleasant Friday night. With very little effort, I rode ALL 16 coasters in the park! In under five hours! (I didn't count Jr. Gemini since you normally need a child with you to ride it, although sometimes you can get lucky.) And the next day I spent almost four hours making a chalk drawing of the cottage -- not only my longest drawing session since college, but my longest ever without a break. It was great, and a beautiful day to just relax.

Budgeting
In time I may write more about the first year living on my own and what I've learned, but suffice it to say that I've cut back drastically on my spending. It's not that I was particularly high-maintenance to begin with, but I adjusted my budget to make up for the increase in my health insurance and medical costs. I cut out things like Netflix and trimmed back the line item for seeing theatre. By eating healthier, I'm spending less on groceries because I no longer stock the cupboards and freezer with snacks and convenience foods (aside from eating less in general). And after February's gas bill, I turned down the heat and started wearing my fleece and slippers at home.

But it wasn't all about cutting; several things worked in my favor. I effectively got a small raise where I'm working, although it wasn't explicitly called that. In addition, my unused vacation/sick time from when my old company closed is being paid out, which is a nice little sum. To top it off, my rent did not go up when I renewed my apartment lease like they had originally said.

Probably the biggest difference is that my music income has been much higher than I originally estimated in my budget, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the numbers once I wrote down all the gigs I had already done this year and had coming up. Since then I've added a few more, mainly subbing as an organist in churches. I will probably get back into music directing next year too. (This is not to say I'm making more than I did in previous years; rather, I had always grossly underestimated it, since I theoretically cannot predict how many gigs I will have in a given year. But in reality, I always make more than that estimate.)

So, I'm still keeping the cutbacks I made and I'm being more careful about discretionary spending, but with my redone budget, I'm able to keep living in the same apartment another year and even -- what a concept! -- put money in my Roth IRA. I really like my apartment (it's the perfect size for me, on the first floor, and my neighbors are whisper quiet) so I'm glad I didn't have to move, in spite of the crappy health coverage situation.

However... I left my vacation/travel budget the same. It's very important to me to have that outlet for amusement parks in particular. And speaking of which, Stu scored some discount tickets at work for Darien Lake, so we'll be making a day trip over there next Saturday. And so, The Year of the Awesome continues.

aaaaaand another month goes by

2009-07-25T12:56:00.005-04:00

Merry Christmas in July!

I'm enjoying some awesome Caruso's coffee at Seekers Coffee House as I type this. I'm here because, sadly, weekend business is slow at Jim's Coffeehouse and they are now closed on Saturdays until at least after Labor Day. I hope they can weather this recession. I dare say I hope we all can. At the barbershop this morning more than several of us commiserated about our lousy job and health insurance situations.

Yes, I am very grateful to have any job in this economy. After my struggle to find health insurance -- any at all -- I finally was able to get coverage through the company for whom I'm working. The provider is still United Healthcare, as I had before, but the coverage is quite different -- not so much in what it covers, but what percentage of the cost.

I previously paid for half my premium and my employer covered the other half, and I knew this time around I would have to pay the full premium... but this premium is more than double what I paid before... yet it has no dental rider, has a deductible, and has an out-of-pocket maximum that is more than double what I had before. So for my increased premium, I'm getting significantly less coverage. Significantly. Yes I'm using a lot of italics in this post.

On the plus side... if there is one... I will be able to deduct any medical expenses above 7.5% of my income from my taxes. And since the IRS considers self-employed individuals to be "businesses," yes I will be itemizing for the first time.

And it shouldn't be too difficult to reach that yearly out-of-pocket maximum, because I had a CAT scan a few weeks ago to check on my Hodgkin's. I'm very happy to say that today marks the four-year anniversary of my last radiation therapy treatment, and I'm still in remission! I will have a blood test and X-ray in January, then another CAT scan a year from now. After that, it will just be the blood test and X-ray once a year. Hurrah!

So yeah, to say the least, I'm none too happy about this insurance situation, especially after all the screwing around I had to do to get it. (Even though they received my application in late May, I did not receive my new card until the day before my CAT scan in early July, for various reasons totally unrelated to me. Although I was the one who had to take action to get it fixed. Several times.)

It still beats having no coverage at all, and I know others are in far worse situations than I am; however, it does tend to break one's optimism.

IN OTHER NEWS, Becki and Matt are getting married today! And tomorrow afternoon I'm playing for Fairmount Performing Arts Conservatory's Into the Woods. There are just three shows left: tonight, tomorrow's matinee, and tomorrow evening. More information can be found here, and if you scroll way down, you can even read my bio.

So that's where things stand right now. Life is life. And I don't know where the hell July went.

about this song 3

2009-06-25T22:13:00.003-04:00

I have posted previously about how I sometimes feel the need to record piano arrangements when they pop into my head, lest I forget them. I had another musical muse moment a week ago and finally recorded it tonight.

Like the others, this is just a "demo" and not something I'd call finished. However, it's an idea and certainly listenable. I've arranged a medley of several traditional Christian folk tunes: Holy Manna, Down in the River to Pray, and Beach Spring.

As before, I'll tip my hat to the likes of Ms. Line, Mr. Hayes, and Mr. Brickman.

Manna River Medley

plus 9! (or 12)

2009-06-19T01:07:00.005-04:00

Lately it seems like this blog is more about the new roller coasters I've ridden this year... and today's post will be no exception. Last weekend, the Stu/Laurie clan and I trekked over to Indiana to visit Indiana Beach and Holiday World. I would compare Indiana Beach to a "mini-Geauga Lake." Holiday World is much larger and features a sizable water park. In fact it's so sizable that I spent more time walking barefoot on concrete between attractions than actually being wet. And yes my feet ached the next day. However I was good with the sunblock and suffered no pinkitude.

In any case, I added nine coasters to my count between the two parks, for a total of 83. Three of them made it into my Top 10 Wooden Coasters list, which just reiterates how severely lacking Cedar Point is in that department.

I neglected to mention previously that we also made a day trip to Lakemont Park near Altoona, Pennsylvania several weekends ago to ride the world's oldest operating roller coaster. Yes, it's mostly a nostalgia ride, but it's also interesting to see how they were made back then; and it isn't without its minor thrills. Lakemont is also home to another woodie that made my Top 10, the Skyliner, which doubles as outfield decoration for the Blair County Ballpark.

In other news, despite this being The Year of the (Theatre) Hiatus, I have agreed to sub for some rehearsals of FPAC's Into the Woods. The Fairmount Performing Arts Center runs a children's theatre camp, and I am now serving as Assistant Music Director for this production. In addition to covering two rehearsals a week when the Music Director (my friend Mike) can't be there, I will be conducting the orchestra the evening of July 19th. Plus a little bit of money and getting to meet new people. The usual story.

Since I have gotten a pretty significant amount of coastering in already this year, and I normally avoid the parks in July, I don't feel bad about this break in the hiatus. And it still leaves my weekends free (which are already booked with other stuff). Besides, I'm pretty close to using up my vacation budget, so aside from a few Cedar Point trips later in the season, I'm not planning anything big. It's not even July yet and my Cedar Fair pass has already paid for itself.

I'll also mention in passing that I've lost 20 pounds since early April by way of healthy eating. Walking around all these parks probably helps a bit too, but I'm mainly watching calories and portions. After the first week or so of being hungry all the time, my body has adjusted itself to expect less. It's also saving me a bit of money on food, which is a happy side effect, considering the job situation.

garden luncheon at The Hickories

2009-06-05T08:20:00.002-04:00

It looks like we're in for some great weather this weekend, and if I weren't busy organizing and reading IRS publications regarding my new-found so-called 'business' (i.e. self-employment) and making life choices at the moment, I'd rather like to get out and enjoy it somehow. One way will be tonight, when I'm going to Cedar Point with some friends for CoasterMania, featuring "exclusive ride time" on Magnum and Raptor after the park closes (exclusive to however many people are doing CoasterMania).

Tomorrow I will be playing my digital piano on the porch of The Hickories as part of their "Spring Luncheon and Historic Tour" fundraiser. More information can be had at the Historical Society's website or perhaps in this brief from The Morning Journal, which includes a snippet of an email I sent to the columnist.

I guess that's all for now.

new milestone

2009-05-20T09:31:00.003-04:00

Best birthday ever.

As I mentioned in my last post, Stu, Laurie, and I took my birthday off work to go to Cedar Point. The lines aren't too bad this early in the season, but because they opened later this year the schools have fewer weeks in which to squeeze in those end-of-the-year field trips. My birthday usually occurs during Math & Science Week, so there are always quite a few students there.

Another reason for going during the work week is that Stu and Laurie can leave their daughter in daycare like any other workday, and now that her mom lives nearby, she could pick up Chloe and allow us to stay at the park later.

The temperature should have been a "RealFeel®" high of 67, but in fact got up to 75 by afternoon, with very low humidity. Warm enough to be comfortable, but not so warm as to require shorts and thus an extra 10 minutes of sunblock application. Which is exactly how I wanted it. :)

We had dinner at Famous Dave's, which was new for all of us, and feasted on some awesome BBQ ribs. Stu and I have both lost 13 pounds over the last six weeks by eating healthier and limiting calories, and even though we designated today as exempt due to the 'holiday,' we really didn't do too badly. Plus we did a ton of walking around the park.

However I do intend to do badly when Stu and Laurie take me to The Melting Pot next week as my gift.

The topper for the day was that I got to ride the Jr. Gemini, which means I have now ridden all 17 roller coasters at Cedar Point! To ride, you must be between 36-54 inches tall or be accompanied by a child. Since I didn't start riding until I was in 8th grade, and have not since gone to CP with children old enough to ride it, I could never get this credit.

UNTIL YESTERDAY!

The park was mostly filled with adults and teenagers, so the kids' areas were pretty dead. There was no one in line for Jr. Gemini, and the ride hosts looked rather bored. I went up and asked if I could ride, and one of them said I needed a child with me. Laurie and I whined that it was the only coaster I needed to say I've ridden all 17, and pointed out that there was no one in line. The other ride host heard this and let me on! When I was done, I thanked them again and said it was the best birthday present EVAR! [sic] (Duh, I should have mentioned it was my birthday during the negotiations. Oh well.)

I did the 'family' birthday stuff on Sunday, and got gift cards to Target, Giant Eagle, and Guitar Center (which is going toward the purchase of a stool for my digital piano). Plus, my mom made an orange-Kool-Aid-mix-flavored cake, served with orange sherbet. Mmmmm.

As birthdays go, this one ranks toward the top. However, I now only have one year left to Get My Sh!t Together Before I'm 30.

and another month goes by

2009-05-16T19:57:00.006-04:00

April felt like a 'nothing' month and flew by admirably, yet here we're over half way through May already. One might think that my life would slow down and take a breath now that I'm not doing any shows, but one would be illy misinformed.

I might as well begin where I left off with my last post. Sadly, my cold did not give a reprieve before Kings Island's opening day, but I still had fun. Diamondback was incredible. So much airtime, and so smooth. I added that and two other rides to my coaster count, but since Chloe still isn't a fan of roller coasters, I couldn't get the credit for Little Bill's Giggle Coaster. It looks like it will be yet another year before I can claim my Jr. Gemini credit and officially say I've ridden all the coasters at Cedar Point as well. *sigh* :)

I would upload some of the pictures I took at Kings Island, but frankly they aren't that great. Instead, I would direct you to Coaster Image, which has far better photos of Diamondback than the ones I got.

The following weekend I saw an awesome production of Godspell at Olde Towne Hall Theatre, and helped Stu build some simple stairs on the back of his house. That's right. Physical labor. Handiwork. Who am I?

Today was Cedar Point's opening day, which had a little less impact since Kings Island broke the winter amusement park fast a month ago. I was debating about going because of the weather forecast, especially since we will be going again Tuesday for my birthday, but I ended up going by myself anyway. I got in early with my season pass and rode six coasters plus Skyhawk in about five hours. Not too shabby. I left mid-afternoon, just before the rain hit.

Tomorrow, my nephew is being baptized, and I'm godfathering. As it turns out, I'm also playing the piano and organ at church, because our organist fell and broke her arm.

The rest is just little things here and there: historical society annual meeting program, a wedding jazz band gig, and now possibly a coaster mini-trip for Memorial Day weekend.

The BIG news is about my job. Without getting too bogged down in the details of how this came about, the short version is that by the end of May, my company will be closing. However, our company's primary client is a music publisher in Florida, who reimbursed my company for the cost of employing me. Basically, now that money will come directly to me instead. I will be a full-time, self-employed graphic artist (freelancer).

And before everyone starts cheering about being one's own boss and making one's own hours and deducting every breath of air from one's taxes, let me tell you it's really not that rosy. I will essentially be doing the exact same work I did before. I might have more opportunities to work from home, but in practice I doubt that will work since I often need immediate collaboration and feedback from my boss and our editor with these projects. (Plus it's just easier than having to drag a bunch of folders and papers home when I need them there.) The main savings for the Florida publisher is that we'll be moving to a smaller, cheaper office space. What had been our printing/production department will become its own separate company in Elyria, run by our production manager. They will still do a significant amount of printing for the Florida publisher as well.

Aside from the annoyance of having to pay estimated taxes every three months, and having to keep track of a hell of a lot more expenses so I can deduct them (whereas previously I just took the standard deduction since it was way higher), another fun aspect is that I will be losing my group health insurance. I can't get COBRA, because the company will cease to exist, and along with it, our health plan.

I started emailing and calling around. A friend of a friend works at Medical Mutual, but she said I couldn't get SuperMed One (their insurance for individuals) because I'd had cancer. I called an insurance agent my minister knew, but the best they could find was Golden Rule through United Healthcare, which wanted me to be in remission five years before they'd give me a policy at all, and even then, it wouldn't cover anything related to the cancer. Aside: I will have been in remission four years this coming July, and have a CAT scan scheduled for then. The CAT scan is made up of three parts and usually comes to about $3500. So... yeah. The next best they could find wanted me to be in remission seven years.

After that phone call is when I really started to worry. Schutze, one of my college roommates who now works for Social Security, called me and we talked for a bit. He suggested I call United Healthcare (my current provider) and ask about "continuation coverage." Apparently those were the magic words, because that indicated I could still be covered for six months if I paid the full premium. Continuation coverage, apparently, is the mini-version of COBRA for companies with fewer than 20 employees (so "COBRA" wasn't even the proper thing to be asking about). Our bookkeeper and I kept reiterating that our company would be closing entirely, but UHC insisted I could still get coverage anyway. Hmmm.

Then I started reading more about it on their website, and realized that the ARRA of 2009 would subsidize 65% of the premium, so I'd only be paying 35%. Which is hilarious because I currently am paying 50% of my premium, with my employer covering the other half. So I'd actually be paying less for health insurance! The hitch, of course, is that it would only last six months, so in December I'd be scrambling to find coverage again.

(Aside: I've also since learned that the average employee contribution for health insurance premiums in the area is about 15-17%, as opposed to my 50%. Some of my friends have jobs where they pay nothing at all. No wonder people think COBRA is "so expensive"; for me, it would just have been double what I was already paying, but for those folks it would be a significant change, especially when combined with losing one's job.)

Anyway, the continuation coverage gave me a sigh of relief, although in the back of my head I was still skeptical that I would be able to get it since our company was closing entirely (why would it be different for mini-COBRA than regular COBRA?). In the meanwhile, the publisher in Florida who will be my primary source of income, discovered that I qualify to go on their United Healthcare policy so long as there's no gap in coverage. Again I would have to pay the full premium, but I would have similar coverage as I do now. And it would have the advantage of being steady, regular insurance (and group insurance at that), rather than expiring after six months.

So yeah. What a difference a week makes. And what a bunch of screwing around. I know some folks like to believe the uninsured are only poor people and minorities, but that's not the case for me. Apparently it also includes self-employed cancer survivors.

As I said, Florida is going to pay me what it used to cost to employ me in Grafton, so that will include the portion of taxes and health premiums that my employer had been paying. That means my net income really shouldn't change, but now I'll be able to deduct mileage and whatnot on my tax return. Plus, I will no longer be paid by the hour; I will be paid 1/12 of that yearly gross figure each month. Hypothetically this means I can take more vacation time so long as my work gets done, but much like "working from home," I highly doubt that will happen in practice. I still intend to keep track of my hours and vacation time in a spreadsheet, however, just in case any questions arise.

So for the immediate future, I'm grateful to have A job and have the health insurance mostly squared away. Now I can get back to looking at my finances and figuring out where I can reduce expenses and/or increase income, in the hopes that I can actually put some money away in my Roth IRA this year instead of just breaking even. It could mean finding a cheaper apartment -- and my lease is up in June, so I need to decide quickly. I sure didn't need to waste a week of my time on top of that looking for health insurance.

catching up

2009-04-16T21:09:00.003-04:00

It's been nearly a month since my last post, for no particular reason. In the almost three weeks since City of Angels closed, I've been struggling to remember what "normal" is, from what little I can decipher out of mid-November through January.

City of Angels was a truly great experience. Not only was it a fantastic production, but it was an excellent opportunity to push myself as a musician and singer. As I said before, the three-a-week rehearsal schedule was far less stressful than many shows I've done, yet we were just as productive (if not more so) because everyone was so dedicated to what we were doing. If the director was blocking a scene in one room, the music director was going over parts in another room, and still others were practicing along with the Broadway cast recording in another. I had a similar experience with Company last year at Cassidy Theatre, and I'm grateful to have been a part of such artistry.

Also, it's one of the very few (I'd almost venture to say only) shows during which I never got a cold at any time during rehearsals, the run, or immediately after closing. I did manage to get one this week though, just in time for the first coaster trip of the season. Hopefully I can shake it off, because the forecast for Kings Island looks good.

So what else have we missed since my last post? Amy King and I performed a violin/piano program for the Elyria Musical Art Society, featuring music from Tony-winning shows. Here are a few excerpts:

"Some Enchanted Evening" from South Pacific (1950)
"Rainbow High" from Evita (1980)
"The Tennis Song" from City of Angels (1990) — This one is neat because the song is a duet, so Amy played the male part as written but the female part an octave higher (and both octaves where they sing in unison)

Last week, I filled in as pianist for three Godspell rehearsals at Olde Towne Hall Theatre, which does not count as breaking my hiatus. However, three was the magic number to get me invited to any and all cast parties. :)

On Saturday, the Landeses and I had free tickets to the Lake Erie Monsters game. It's only the second hockey game I've been to, but I followed it pretty well. Unfortunately, the Lemmies played like a typical Cleveland sports team,* but it was a packed house so it was still kind of fun.

*No offense to the Cavs, circa 2005-2009.

Easter was spent in the usual fashion, with church in the morning and dinner that afternoon at Aunt Martha's. Although I don't like the taste of eggs, I do enjoy coloring them. This is a family tradition that is usually caught on film, but this would be the first Easter living on my own, so I made sure to shoot some video footage of myself coloring the eggs in my apartment (for dad's sake).

McCormick neon food coloring rocks.

I also did some minimal Easter-related decorating:

For lack of basket-shaped vessels, I instead made use of my martini glasses—for the first time—by using them to hold my stone eggs. I set these in various places around the living room.

Not even the staunchest War-On-Christmas Warrior can complain about this being called a "holiday tree": My aunt decorates it for Christmas, Valentine's, St. Patrick's, and Easter:

I have also updated my birdwatching page, which had been woefully out of date.

And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bed early, in the hopes that I can stave off this cold before Saturday.

city of angels 5

2009-03-19T13:14:00.003-04:00

I lied. There is one more episode of Call-Back, albeit a brief one:

So what did I do this week during my time off? Well, Monday night I saw local actress Kristin Netzband in a touring production of The Drowsy Chaperone at Stocker Center. Tuesday was the violin/piano concert with Amy King, which went very well. I might post some sound clips later. Last night I got caught up on laundry and TV shows I've been missing for weeks. And this morning I'm going in to work late so a Levin Furniture technician can get my magic table in full working order. (One of the drawers was broken upon arrival, then the replacement drawer they sent me had no holes for the handles. The handles which I had to remove from the broken drawer because the new one didn't come with them.)

In other news, only 29 days until Kings Island opens, with its new roller coaster, Diamondback! Some friends and I are driving down for the weekend. Meanwhile us poor slobs in the northern part of the state have to wait an additional month for Cedar Point. :-\

violin/piano concert: six decades of Tony-winning musicals

2009-03-16T13:27:00.002-04:00

You may remember three years ago I took part in a Lenten violin/piano concert at my church ("Hosanna!"). Amy King and I are teaming up again in a program for the Elyria Musical Art Society. It takes place this Tuesday (March 17), 7:30 p.m. at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Elyria. There is no admission charge and it's open to the public.

I've chosen songs from Broadway shows that won the Tony Award for Best Musical and Best Original Score in 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000. As it happens, City of Angels won in 1990, so I'll get to plug my show at the same time. :)

The program includes

Some Enchanted Evening (1950 - South Pacific)
My Favorite Things (1960 - The Sound of Music)
Applause (1970 - Applause)
High Flying, Adored (1980 - Evita)
Rainbow High (1980 - Evita)
The Tennis Song (1990 - City of Angels)
You Can Always Count On Me (1990 - City of Angels)
Written in the Stars (2000 - Aida)
and... just because it's my favorite musical of all time and the song makes for a nice closer...
Prologue from Ragtime (1998).

city of angels 4

2009-03-11T16:09:00.003-04:00

Obviously I've been too busy to post lately, but we have the third and final edition of "Call-Back" online now, so I thought I'd share it:

I did manage to get some things done at home last weekend, however. The last of the Christmas decorations are put away. I tore up and threw out the mountain of boxes and packing foam that came with the "magic table" (lift-top coffee table I bought), along with a couple other empty boxes I had stacked near the door and easily could have disposed of weeks ago. Took out the recycling, did three loads of laundry, cleaned the entire apartment for the first time in well over a month. And that's all thanks to taking last Friday off work. :) I actually got a full night's sleep three days in a row. I can't say the same for this week.

So yeah, the show opens this Friday night, and it's going to be good. At this point we're just tweaking and polishing. I'm very glad I agreed to do this show since, as I said before, not many theaters attempt it, and I have friends in the cast (and have made new ones, as usual). I'm a stronger singer than actor, so I was more engaged with the challenge of learning the City of Angels music than I was with learning how to act with Company last year.

I still plan to stick to my summer hiatus, but I hope to get back into the orchestra pit and possibly music direct for a while. Part of my wanting to be on stage was to get some experience from both sides of the piano, and see how other music directors work. I've done that, so I'd like to get back to the keyboard again soon.

pepsi decides to put the 'ugly' in 'fugly' 2

2009-02-23T21:59:00.007-05:00

I discussed my dismay with the recent rollout of new "pepsi" (lowercase) brand logos, but was somewhat indifferent on the new Tropicana packaging. I wasn't crazy about it -- and I liked the previous design -- but I wasn't repulsed by it either. On the computer screen I thought it was fine and fresh, but once I saw it on store shelves, it seemed to disappear into the background.

I was more concerned that this coincided with eliminating the "low acid" variety of orange juice, which sat better with my stomach in the morning. Since Tropicana apparently provided the only low acid OJ sold at Giant Eagle, this meant I was no longer compelled to stick with that brand. I've since switched to Simply Orange, which makes a great orange-pineapple juice that's worth the extra 30 cents. Edited to add: According to their website, Tropicana does still make the low acid variety, but the four closest locations are a few Target stores scattered across northeast Ohio. Not really worth my time.

But I digress. Apparently, enough consumers were turned off by the new Tropicana packaging that Pepsico is reverting to the previous design. As Armin from Under Consideration says,

In terms of design justice coming down upon crappy design, this day is as big as it gets. Every year from here henceforth, on February 23rd, corporations should be allowed to take back a design mistake and repent... a branding Yom Kippur if you will.

Ha! Perhaps we can set up a hotline for marketing VPs to call: 1-888-OOPS-LOGO.

city of angels 3

2009-02-21T14:37:00.003-05:00

Here's the second "backstage pass" video for City of Angels. This one includes a brief interview with me as well.

The rehearsal process has been less hectic than with other shows, because we're only going three nights a week (for more weeks) rather than the usual four or five. This means one can do laundry or pay the bills on the in-between nights, rather than putting everything off until Saturday. Especially now that I am living on my own, I appreciate this. Sometimes I'll even cook a double serving of dinner on my off night so I can reheat leftovers on a rehearsal night.

Something else new with this show is that we had our first cast party three weeks into rehearsals. The reasoning for this was that Jason (the host) has a karaoke system, and didn't want us to blow our voices out during the run of the show. Plus, I can speak from experience that building camaraderie among the cast early on helps everyone (see also: Forever Plaid, 2002). Our next party -- sans karaoke -- is a week from now, and we still don't open for another two weeks after that. :)

One might think that this rehearsal schedule would allow me to, say, take down the remainder of my scant few Christmas decorations, but one would be mistaken. Maybe that will be a task for today.

city of angels 2

2009-02-15T13:37:00.003-05:00

Here's a video snippet of our quartet that our director put together:

(Note: While playing, click the little triangle in the bottom right and select "HQ" for a higher quality video.)

I figured I'd post this as well: This is from the 1990 Tony Awards, and features two songs from the show (somewhat out of context, although Kathleen Turner gives some narration to explain what's going on).

City of Angels at the 1990 Tony Awards

Incidentally, BlueGobo.com is a great place to find video clips of professional musical productions.

city of angels

2009-02-12T22:56:00.002-05:00

Here's a "backstage" look at the show for which I'm currently rehearsing, City of Angels. Eventually there will be a promotional video featuring the quartet I'm in, but for now this will give you an overview and a peek behind the scenes:

(Note: While playing, click the little triangle in the bottom right and select "HQ" for a higher quality video.)

The show runs the last three weekends of March: Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

kix v. cocoa puffs

2009-02-03T14:56:00.004-05:00

I maintain that Kix engages in false advertising. What kid really wants that bland, tasteless cereal? My friend Justin maintains it's slightly sweet and that he liked it as a kid. We were noting that Cocoa Puffs are just chocolate Kix, but harder.

J: kix is soft
J: cocoa puffs are like a rock tumbler
J: lol

B: you and your f*cking kix
B: I swear to god
B: lol

J: {eviscerate mouth roof!}
J: kid-tested, mother-approved, and bryan-despised
J: lol

B: you ruin it for the rest of us who just want to eat a bowl of sugar qubes for breakfast

J: f
J: I like the corn crunch, b*tch
J: lol,
J: a bowl of sugar cubes
J: I'm imagining pouring that into a bowl
J: {clink clink!}
J: {dissolve in milk?}

B: lol yeah
B: {also have a vitamin!}

(For an explanation of "have a vitamin," watch this Homestar Runner toon.)

optical illusions

2009-01-31T12:16:00.003-05:00

Check out this optical illusion, where a black and white image turns to color. Before you click the link, just so you're prepared, what you're going to do is stare at the black dot in the center, then wait 15 seconds for the negative to go back to black.

What's at work is called an afterimage, where the staring causes the [whatever color] receptor to get fatigued, so that when you switch to looking at plain white, which requires all the color receptors, [whatever color] is sending fewer messages to the brain, so we only see what's left, i.e. [opposite color] instead.

But when you do that, usually the afterimage is kinda fuzzy. What they've done here is add the black and white dots to help give the photo some definition, so all the afterimage has to do is give it a light wash of color. Also, during the 15-second negative phase, the dots are gray, to ensure that those receptors aren't fatigued when it switches back to the original image! Clever.

I almost wish you could select the duration of the negative; if you could stare longer, the afterimage would last longer.

One of my favorite (and most infuriating) illusions is The Spinning Dancer. This has happened to me twice: On first glance, I think she's spinning counter-clockwise; then, I close my eyes and mentally picture her spinning the other way; I open my eyes, and I'm able to see her spinning clockwise. But from then on, I seem incapable of seeing her going counter-clockwise again! I assure you, the animation remains exactly the same throughout.

The Wikipedia article on optical illusions has an extensive collection of more fun ones.

Awesome. The Musical.

2009-01-10T14:15:00.002-05:00

In the words of co-author Stuart Landes, it's "About being awesome and striving for awesomeness."

That's as far as we got.

Miss Saigon has its helicopter.
Phantom has its chandelier.
Les Mis has its rotating restaurant.
And Cats has its... junkyard.

Awesome. The Musical. will have a working roller coaster on stage/hovering over the audience. And an all-night pie delivery service.

I've already created the logo. First things first, you know.

bryanbird.com moved to a new host

2009-01-04T15:38:00.003-05:00

This doesn't really impact any of my readers, but just FYI... I've finally moved my web site to a new host, and now Google is handling my email as well. I'm really really hoping this will solve the problems I've had over the past few years of delayed emails with my previous forwarding services from No-IP and MyDomain. No-IP wasn't too bad, but there were still occasions where I'd receive an email several hours after it was sent, rather than immediately.

That may not sound like a big deal, but more than several times I was waiting for something time-sensitive and it arrived the next day. When I was using MyDomain, I even had one email delayed two weeks. But it was free, so who was I to complain? No-IP, on the other hand, I paid for. MyDomain still handled my domain forwarding though, and recently it's been very spotty. I got tired of my "web site being down" when in fact it was just MyDomain not working.

In addition, I had been using Apple's .Mac (now called Mobile Me) to host my web site, mainly because I found it handy to use its auto-sync feature to keep a local copy on my hard drive. The annoying part was that I had very few options for uploading a new file. Since it doesn't support FTP, I couldn't host my blog there, for example. Instead, my blog had been published to Windstream's servers, on the measly few megabytes that came with my parents' DSL acocunt. I'm pretty sure I was over quota, but they never notified us or blocked me.

Now I'm living on my own and have Time-Warner Cable internet, but trying to use their (again, measly few megabytes of) FTP space has been infuriating. I don't think I ever did get it to log in. Such web space was common back in the days of dialup internet, but I guess now people either use other web page builders or don't create personal home pages, because the people I spoke to at Time-Warner Cable barely knew what I was talking about. And 10 MB? Please. They gave the same amount of space 10 years ago in the dialup days. Server space is cheap now.

Anyway, a couple of my friends use Dreamhost, and they had a really good promotion going on a few months ago, so I signed up with them. I just now got around to moving all my files over and re-assigning all my subdomains.

Does this mean anything for you? No. If you're reading this, you're viewing it on the new host. Notice that, up in your address bar, it now starts with "blog.bryanbird.com..." rather than "home.windstream.net..." Same goes for my main site. Looks a little more professional, if nothing else.

I'm still in the process of going through my 400+ old posts to find old URLs that had said windstream or alltel to update them to blog.bryanbird.com, but since the old files are still there, for now, no links should be broken.

And that's what I did today.