Just de facts.

I'm going to update my blog soon. Seriously.

For now, here's what you need to know:

Europe was fun, Spoleto was fun, and they're filming the new Batman movie in the lobby of the building where I work part-time.

All undeniably cool.

Dispatches from across the pond.

Hey guys.

I thought I'd give you all some updates from my first-ever trip to Europe. I'm in Nice now, and I absolutely love it, but there will be more on that later. For the moment, let's chat about London.

Backstory: Since I needed to be down in SC for next week's Fowler Family Radio Hour (see previous post!) shows, I drove down to Sumter on Saturday and flew out of Charlotte on Sunday. I had to teach Saturday, so I didn't get to Sumter until almost 6am. No biggie. I wanted to be tired on the plane so I could sleep.

Sunday I ate Chinese food with my family, and Sam and Mom took me to the airport. The flight from Charlotte to Gatwick was uneventful. I didn't get to sleep much, but that's because I was flying coach and had about an inch and a half of space between the window and the Halliburton contractor sitting next to me. (Might not have been Halliburton, but he was a DoD contractor headed to Dubai and then Afghanistan, so you do the math.) The two hours I got on the plane plus the 4 hours I got in Sumter mean that between Saturday morning (around 6am) and my arrival in London on Monday (around 8:15, London time), I had banked a total of six hours of sleep. That explains why I nearly passed out in the TATE Britain and took a 300 year old portrait with me... but that's a narrowly avoided international incident for another day.

I had an 11 hour layover in London, so I headed into town. Why not?

The first picture I took before doing so? I picture from the restroom, because I think international signs are hilarious.

.. ahem...

Anyway, the time on the town was great. I took the train into Victoria Station, and had neither a map, nor a gameplan, nor a particularly clear consciousness due to the sleep delerium I had on the back burner.

I wandered some. I stopped off and had a cup of tea. Darjeeling. It was good. I figured it was a must in London, plus it help put me in the mood for some sightseeing.

I caught Westminster Abbey. Beautiful. I didn't go inside, but it was pretty amazing just to be around it.

... and another portion of it....

Here's one of one of the other churches on the Abbey grounds (St. Michael's?) with Big Ben in the background...

This also began my comedy of errors of trying to take a picture of myself.

Could be worse.

Next I strolled over to Parliament where I took this gem.

What a tool.

I took some shots of the Thames next, and you can see the London Eye in the background.

I also made my way to Buckingham Palace and took these classics.

What a moron.

There were red phone booths....

and tiny cars that looked like red phone booths....

(That's a Prius behind it... that's how small this thing was....)

and men dressed in red with hats like phone booths....

and red buses. I didn't take a picture of those....

I also ate Fish and Chips and had a pint of Old Speckled Hen at the Bag O' Nails Pub.

Is all of this cliche? Sure, but give me a break. It was a few hours in London.

More to come.

Fowler Family Radio Hour @ Spoleto!

Hey there cats and kittens.

My blog has lain fallow for long enough. I've been swamped with all sorts of work and play, but it's time to get back on the pony.

How better to do that then through shameless self promotion?!?!?!

A show that I, along with five other native-Southern Chicago transplants, wrote and perform is coming to the Piccolo Spoleto Fringe Festival next week! The show is May 26-29 at Theatre 99 (280 Meeting Street, 2nd level.) Tickets are 15 bucks, and can be purchased through Ticketmaster (though we all know how much TM loves their fees...) or by going to the Piccolo Spoleto Box office at the Gailliard Auditorium. More details on that here.

The show is a good time. We've performed it at several theatres in Chicago, and it has always been well received.

Find us online at www.myspace.com/fowlerfamilyradiohour.

Also, if you aren't sure what I'm getting you into, there's a preview on youtube. Find that here.

From now until the show, I'll be in France for work, but feel free to email me or leave comments here if you have questions.

I hope to see you there!

-Tim

Back to it.

In case you didn't notice... and I am sure you did, but were too polite to mention it.... I had a long lapse in posting, and just played catch-up to get posts about the trip home up and running.

After the trip, I was pretty much toast.

Too much food. Too much beer. Too many nice people. Too much nice weather.

It was a great break. So great that it was tough to face the absolute madness that I encountered upon my return. Deadlines. Class wrap-ups. Show openings. General insanity.

I'll post on all of that later. For now, I need to prepare for more daily grind nonsense.

The Wedding.

Bruce's Wedding was some of this:

A bit of this:

And a lot of this:

Food.

When you've been away from the south and you come back to visit, you are barraged with an incredible bounty of delicious food. Food you can't find in Chicago.

Before the wedding, we were going to hit up Mac's Drive Thru, a Clemson institution. Gorgeous greasy heart-stoppers. Delicious.

It was packed. Therefore, we went here:

What are the odds?

Good food. Not Chicago-style.

Which is fine. For the record.

Bachelor Party

In lieu of the standard ridiculous bachelor party debauchery, Bruce, Ray, Jason, and I went up to the mountains and had a few days of giant steaks, good beer, stogies, xbox, chicken wings, table shuffleboard, and good old fashioned Boone relaxation.

It was pretty fun.

Easter Egg Hunt

Cuter than a basket full of kittens and puppies floating in a magical pool filled with lollipops, candy canes, and baby mermaids.

Spongebob Addiction

My niece Bailey is 19 months old and precocious. (I guess. What do I know about early childhood development? She seems a lot less lame than most sub-2 kids. )

She likes to eat ice. She presses her forehead against stuff. She really likes being thrown in the air and jumping off of stuff. She can differentiate between drinks, and will often ask for water, milk, juice, and tea all in the same sitting. If you give her the wrong drink, she doesn't pout, but she does look disappointed. She quotes Spongebob Squarepants incessantly.

If you've ever seen "Wonderpets", "Doodlebops", or any other program targeted at toddlers and preschoolers, you'd know that a Spongebob obsession is a wonderful thing for a child to have. Those other shows? Terrible. Spongebob? Hilarious.

Still, it's somehow troublesome to see a tiny kid toddling around yelling "Go Gary Go!" or "I'm ready! I'm ready! etc..." or any other common Spongebobism. Does a show about a sponge who lives in a Pineapple who works for a crab and has adventures with his best friend (a starfish) warp a kid's worldview?

I guess no more than a show about a magical street inhabited by a giant flightless bird, a trash monster, and a hairy elephant.

Or, for that matter, a dude who plays with puppets and can't walk in the door without changing his shoes and outerwear...

I miss those shows.

Trip Home

So, I'm down in South Carolina for a bit. I left around 8 on Thursday night and drove through the night. Maybe that sounds like crazy-talk, but here's what it 13 hrs in a car got me:

Chicago:

Sumter, SC:

Not a bad trade.

Strange.

I wish I lived in this house. I'd wear a threadbare smoking jacket all the time.

I saw this on the Reagan Expressway.

Makes sense, I guess. How else would you carry a turn-of-the-century 'high wheel' bicycle on the back of your sensible late-model Honda?

Hockey.

So the Blackhawks are really doing badly this season. Bad news for them. Good news for me. I really like going to hockey games. Watching them on TV isn't the same, and isn't something I really enjoy, but being there is a blast.

So why are bad Blackhawks good news? Because Chicago is pretty apathetic towards them right now, and in order to fill the house, tickets are available for 75 cents.

Seriously. I went with my friend Shelby, and I bought two tickets in advance on ticketmaster, and including all taxes, charges, and fees, it was $6.12 for two tickets. Way cheaper than a movie, plus there's beer and fighting. I'm in.

Blackhawks 3. Columbus 1. We're good luck charms.

Cowlick Musical

We open April 20th. Get excited.

MacGyver

Things I have:

A bottle of wine.
The desire to drink a bottle of wine.
A never-used doorstop with a nice coarsely-threaded head.

Things I don't have:

A corkscrew.


Genius.

Teaching

I've been teaching a lot lately. While some of those classes have been in a traditional classroom in high school, a lot of those have been in a sort of conference room setting. That's a strange sort of dynamic. Ah well. Free coffee.

Weekend

My weekend.
Friday- Straight from working at the bank to working box office at The Playground. From there to home, where I worked on some writing and editing stuff until lateish.
Saturday- Up around 5 to do some more of the editing stuff that I couldn't finish the night before. In Naperville by 8:30. Taught a class from 9-1:30 and another one from2-5. Back to Chicago. Quick trip to the grocery store, at The Playground by 7:15 for a Cowlick show. After that, beers and Balderdash at BJs place. Home by 1.
Sunday- Up by 8. In Naperville around 9:45. Class till 1. Back in Chicago for Hogwash rehearsal at 2. Departed from Hogwash at 4 to head home to do more stuff for the magazine. Involuntary nap... (Not a lot of sleep this weekend), and a late arrival to a Fowler meeting at Shelby's. Back home by 9. Work on writing/editing stuff until 3. Awake around 7 to finish up. Phone interview at 9.

And now? The relaxation of the 'work week.'

Stupid quasibohemian, non-9-to-5, maintain multiple job lifestyle. It's pretty great... most of the time. Still, weekends like this make me long for the relaxation of a cubicle, benefits, and a single w2.

Good day, Sunshine

Record high temperature today. 73 Degrees. March 13. Not bad, Chicago. Not bad at all.

Hooray!

Improvised Shakespeare at i.O. What a blast. One of the funniest shows I have seen in a very long time. It's been a while since I've gotten really excited about an improv show, but this one did it for me. Hilarious.